Tuesday, September 23, 2025

BEING A STUPID SONOFABITCH CAN GET EXPENSIVE

By Bob Walsh

 

A red object with a hole in it on the left, and a white drone with a broken arm in a clear evidence bag on the right. The scene suggests possible damage or collision involving the drone.

A damaged firefighting aircraft is seen (left) after a drone strike while responding to the Palisades Fire on Jan. 9, 2025. The remains of the drone have been recovered by the FBI (right).
 

Peter Akemann is probably not actually a stupid son-of-a-bitch.  He is an executive in the tech industry, dealing mostly with video games.  He did however do an incredibly stupid and dangerous thing that could have killed people.  

Back in January he decided it would be perfectly OK if he flew his drone into the firefighting area around Pacific Palisades.  The drone and a "superscooper" fire fighting plane collided in the air forcing the plane to land.  It suffered significant damage to the leading edge of it's wing, putting the plane out of service for several days during the height of the fire. 

Last week he was sentenced to 14 days in federal custody.  He also owes LA County about $81,000 in damages and almost as much to the government of Quebec, which owns the aircraft in question.  He also got 30 days home detention and 150 hours of community service.  In addition he owes the feds $9,500 in fines.  (Actual custody time on a first-time misdemeanor is pretty rare.)   

He asserted that he was just checking in on a friend's house in the area and lost contact with the drone.  He admitted that the decision to do so was really, really stupid.  

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough.