FBI Confiscates Six Drones Near Super Bowl Stadium (reuters.com)

The FBI confiscated six drones in Atlanta for flying too close to the football stadium where the Super Bowl will be played Sunday, Reuters reports: Drone flight was prohibited on Saturday and from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. EST on Sunday for one nautical mile (2 km) around the Mercedes-Benz Stadium and up to an altitude of 1,000 feet (305 meters), the Federal Aviation Administration said. The FAA will establish temporary flight restriction that prohibits drones within a 30-nautical-mile radius of the stadium and up to 17,999 feet in altitude from 5:30 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, the agency said. ..

Drones "are a big concern," said Nick Annan, Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge. "There are a few other things that are in place to mitigate drones," he added without elaborating. Operators who send drones into restricted areas around the Mercedes-Benz Stadium could face more than $20,000 in civil penalties and criminal prosecution, according to the FAA.
Drone pilots are advised to check the FAA's B4UFly app to check when and where they can fly -- and the aviation agency has also produced a slick 20-second video "encouraging Super Bowl fans to bring their lucky jerseys, face paint and team spirit to the game -- but leave their drones at home -- because the stadium and the area around it is a No Drone Zone."

Comments

Re:Thank God

[Noishkel]

Yeah, no kidding. And look at the level of control the propose to exert. They want to lock down 30 nautical miles around a single commercial event. And they're going to just seize property without charge within that area for an extended period. And what are they looking to find? Are they expect a fleet of Slaughterbots to show up?

Re:Super Bowl?

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

You are saying that nautical miles and knots are silly? What about feet and yards?

As an American, I admit that I'm regularly embarrassed by the fact that on the entire planet, only America, Liberia, and Myanmar still use Imperial measurements. Some people I know refer to Imperial as "Barbarian Units".

Feet, yards, inches, pints, quarts- it's impossible to deny that the whole damn thing is blitheringly idiotic.

Now, I remember literally about 50 fuckin years ago hearing this excited buzz about how the US was going to switch to the metric system "in phases". Woo hoo!

And of course, a bunch of good ol' American goobers and numbnuts instantly came out of the woodwork against it and screamed bloody murder as if it would lead to nuclear war.

And this is weird, but some of the strongest, most strident opposition came from churches and clergy, the holy god-fearin' folk. WTF? Why?

I never did figure that one out. I mean, what was it about the metric system was it that scared the bejeesus out of them? Of all things, the metric system? I repeat: WTF?

Anyway, the furthest we've gotten is that we're now printing both measurement systems on the labels of most consumer goods (and that awe-inspiring milestone was reached like goddamn 30 years ago).

So yeah at this pace my great grandchildren might grow up under the much more rational metric system but I myself wouldn't bet 5 bucks on it.

Re:Super Bowl?

[goose-incarnated]

Of course, they prefer "futbol" AKA "kicking the ball and pretending to be hurt" over real football - despite never having played either.

American football is a girls game. I played Rugby once upon a time. No protective gear, no 20m breaks every 10m of play.

This may come as a shock to you, but over the pond American football and baseball (rounders) are girls games.