Niv Stubenski, a 21-year-old Tel Aviv native, has been arrested after footage, appearing to show a drone’s perspective of planes on approach from roughly 300 feet away, was posted on YouTube and shared to Facebook.
Stubenski was interrogated and then sent to house arrest for five days according to reports from Israel National News. The drone, suspect’s computer and cell phone were confiscated by police for the investigation.
“The incident was reported to the Israel Police and the drone operator was sent to five days of house arrest,” Noam Rosenberg, a spokesman for Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority told the BBC. “During these days, the Israeli Police is formulating the indictment against him. The response of the Israel Police expresses the authorities’ policy against drone operators acting in a reckless, extravagant, unlawfully way and harming flight safety.”
DJI, the Chinese-maker of the Mavic Pro, also condemned the filming in a statement.
“We stand ready to assist national aviation authorities as they investigate a recent wave of photos and videos showing clear and intentional lawbreaking in ways that pose real danger to manned air traffic.” While this is not supposed to be able to happen with DJI’s GPS-based geofencing system, DJI admits there have been efforts to thwart its parameters.
“Recently there have been media reports of unauthorized flight control parameter modifications that enable DJI drones to circumvent built-in safety features, including geofencing restrictions,” the statement read. “DJI is constantly working on improving its firmware to counter unauthorized tampering. A recent firmware update issued for all DJI drones fixes reported issues and ensures DJI’s products continue to provide information and features supporting safe flight.”
