Drone Incidents

Near-misses, crashes, airspace violations, and arrests — when drone flights go wrong.

241

Articles

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Reporters on beat

Nov 12

Last updated

Zipline

Zipline Drone Ends Flight On Houston Highway The Way Amazon's Can't

A Zipline delivery drone came down under its parachute onto Highway 6 in Cypress on Friday. No injuries, no damage, no calls to police, and no cause yet.

Haye KestelooSep 5

Aerial view of the Butler Farm Show grounds after the July 13, 2024 Trump rally, the vantage point Thomas Crooks had and the Secret Service did not

Department of Homeland Security

Secret Service Saw Drones Near Obama and Sanders, Then Came Butler

GAO finds the Secret Service logged drone incidents in 2015, 2016 and 2021, changed no civilian drone policy and never wrote down why. Then came Butler.

Haye KestelooSep 4

DJI Mavic 4

DJI Mavic 4 Pro Shot Out of Alabama Sky, Shooter Risks 20 Years

A gunshot brought down a real estate photographer's DJI Mavic 4 Pro camera drone over Athens, Alabama. Federal law calls that destroying an aircraft.

Haye KestelooSep 2

The nose of an Antonov An-124-100M cargo plane on an airport apron, with the words Be Brave Like Kharkiv painted on the fuselage.

Leipzig Drone Bomb

Germany Blames Russia For Leipzig Drone Bomb, Closes Consulate

Germany formally blames Russia for the August 4 explosive drone at Leipzig/Halle Airport and will close the Russian consulate in Bonn on September 18.

Haye KestelooSep 2

Leipzig Drone Bomb

Leipzig Drone Bomb Plot Ran Three Drones And A Second Explosive

A third drone and 50 grams of suspected hexogen turned up beside Leipzig/Halle Airport. Investigators say the plot was far larger than the public knew.

Haye KestelooAug 29

A U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter hovers low over a forest lake, lowering an orange Bambi Bucket into the water as rotor wash sprays mist across the surface.

Drone Incidents

FBI Task Force Forced Down Hobby Drones Over Spokane Wildfires

An FBI-led counter-drone unit built for the FIFA World Cup detected 41 unauthorized drones over the Spokane wildfires in four days and used electronic countermeasures to force them down. No pilots were arrested; the cases went to the FAA with fines of up to $100,000 each.

Haye KestelooAug 20

Low flames and heavy smoke burn through a ponderosa pine forest along the shoulder of a two-lane road, with the sun glowing orange through the haze.

Drone Incidents

Drone Pilots Ground Spokane Firefighting Aircraft 26 Times

Civilian drones entered restricted airspace over the Spokane County wildfires at least 26 times in three days, repeatedly grounding helicopters and air tankers while three uncontained fires burned homes below. Two operators have been cited, and the cases have been referred to the FAA.

Rafael SuárezAug 4

Early DJI Investor Selling $108M London Property Portfolio Including Iconic Sky Pool Apartments

Counter-Drone

Cellebrite Locks Down SkySafe as Its Only Drone Forensics Partner, Betting Big on Counter-Drone Data

Cellebrite has become the exclusive digital forensics partner to SkySafe, expanding a relationship the two companies first built out through Cellebrite’s March 2026 acquisition of SCG Canada. The deal, announced Tuesday, ties Cellebrite’s mobile-device extraction platform directly into SkySafe’s drone detection and airspace intelligence feeds, giving investigators a single workflow that spans what

Haye KestelooJul 8

Drone Incidents

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