Man Who Crashed Drone into Firefighting Airplane Gets Jailtime and $156k in Fines
The civilian pilot who flew his drone into a firefighting aircraft operating above the Los Angeles wildfires has been sentenced to two weeks in prison and ordered to pay $156,000 in fines.
Peter Tripp Akemann, co-founder of an influential video game company, admitted to flying his DJI Mini 3 Pro drone into a Super Scooper water-dumping plane that was actively fighting the Pacific Palisades fire near Santa Monica in January.
The privately owned drone collided with the plane, leaving a football-sized hole and causing significant damage to the Super Scooper’s left wing. The aircraft managed to land safely, but the damage rendered the plane out of service for a period and prevented it from continuing its firefighting mission. It was out of commission for several days while the fires raged. At the time, it was one of only two Super Scoopers available.
Akemann, of Culver City, Los Angeles, pleaded guilty in February to a federal class-A misdemeanor count of unsafe operation of an unmanned aircraft in a bid to avoid a prison term and instead receive 150 hours of community service. He also offered to pay for repairs to the plane, estimated at a minimum of $65,000.
However, last week, U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald sentenced Akemann to serve 14 days in federal prison, followed by 30 days of home detention. According to ABC Eyewitness News, prosecutors say he was also ordered to pay roughly $156,000 in restitution and fines.
As part of his plea agreement, filed in Los Angeles federal court, Akemann agreed to pay full restitution to the government of Quebec, which supplied the aircraft, and to the aircraft repair company that carried out the necessary fixes, the court document states. ABC Eyewitness News reports that Akemann also agreed to complete 150 hours of community service in support of the 2025 Southern California wildfire relief effort.
Akemann is an influential figure in the video game industry, having helped to co-found Treyarch Invention LLC, a developer associated with the Call of Duty series. He later served as president of VR games developer Skydance Interactive.
In a three-page letter to the court, Akemann expressed his “sincerest remorse and deepest apologies” to the crew of the Super Scooper and the citizens of Los Angeles for what he described as his “stupid and reckless” conduct. He says he flew the drone partly out of “curiosity” to see damage caused by the Palisades fire and “out of concern for a friend” whose home was thought to be near the burn area. He wrote that he experienced signal loss and then lost contact with the drone.
“It was not until I heard on the news that a drone had collided with a firefighting aircraft that I became concerned that it was possibly my drone that had been involved,” Akemann writes.
He adds that he should have recognised that “operating a drone anywhere near an active wildfire and rescue operation was irresponsible, regardless of my intention to do no harm.”
When the incident occurred, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had issued Temporary Flight Restrictions that prohibited drone operations near the wildfires. It is a federal crime to fly a drone during firefighting efforts, and the offence can carry a sentence of up to 12 months in prison.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
