Treyarch co-founder and former Skydance president Pete Akemann has pleaded guilty to flying a drone into a firefighting plane that was tackling the LA wildfires last month.
On the 9th of January, Akemann's drone crashed into the plane and forced it to be grounded. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the drone caused damage to the aircraft's left wing, keeping it out of the skies for several days.
Local authorities were able to trace the drone back to Akemann, who plead guilty to unsafe operation of an unmanned aircraft. He'll be escaping prison, but will have to spend 150 hours in community service and hand over the $65,000 it cost to repair the plane.
Akemann's defence said that he "accepts responsibility for his grave error in judgment, and is cooperating with the government in effort to make amends." However, his attorneys also pointed out "a number of mitigating factors that will come to light during the court proceedings including Mr. Akemann's reliance on the DJI Drone's geo fencing safeguard feature and the failure of that feature."
There was a temporary ban in place on flying drones during the wildfires, which again shows why this has been taken so seriously by the authorities.