The co -founder of Treyarch, Peter Akemann, who most recently served as president of Skydance Interactive, declared himself guilty of flying the drone that crashed and was a fire extinction plane that helped efforts to control the recent forest fires.
Akemann’s drone crashed into the Super Scooper’s fire extinction plane, capable of transporting more than 1000 gallons of water to turn fires, on January 9 (thanks to Hollywood Reporter). The impact resulted in the left wing of the plane, based for several days and prevented that he participated in the Los Angeles fire extinction operation.
At the time of the accident, the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States had implemented temporary flight restrictions that prohibit drones near the forest fires of southern California. Despite this, it is said that Akemann launched a drone from the upper floor of a Santa Monica parking lot in an attempt to survey the fire of Palisades, but finally lost the notion to a mile and a half from its starting point, in the which is the one who is. He crashed with the fire extinction plane.
The authorities finally tracked the return drone to Akemann, and now he agreed to declare himself guilty of an insecure operation of an unmanned plane, a minor crime that carries a prison sentence of up to one year. However, Akemann hopes to escape the prison in exchange for 150 hours of community service in support of the relief of forest fires and the approximately $ 65,000 USD that costs to repair the plane.
“This defendant flew recklessly in an airplane to the airspace where the first to respond risk their lives in an attempt to protect lives and properties,” said US prosecutor Joseph T. McNally in a statement. “This damage caused to the Super Scooper is a marked reminder that flying drones in times of emergency raises an extreme threat to personnel that tries to help people and compromises the general capacity of the police and the fire to carry out operations. As This case demonstrates, we will track down operators that violate the law and interfere with the critical work of our first to respond. ”
In a separate statement, Akemann’s defense lawyers said “deeply regrets” by the incident, adding that “he accepts the responsibility of his serious mistake in the trial and is cooperating with the government in effort to make peace.” However, they also pointed out a “number of mitigating factors that will come to light during judicial procedures”, including the alleged failure of a safeguarding function closely in Akemann DJI drone.
Akemann co -founded Treyach, the best known study for his work in the Call of Duty series, in 1996, and more recently he served as president of Skydance Interactive, which he joined in 2016. The Hollywood report says that Akemann “recently left His role “in Skydance, however.