On 9 January, at the height of the Palisades fire in Los Angeles, one of the firefighting aircraft, a Canadair CL-415 ‘Super Scooper’, was impacted by an unauthorized drone. The collision punched a 3-by-6-inch hole in the left wing of the aircraft. The pilots returned to land safely, but it took a much-needed aircraft out service, and caused a 30 minute delay for ALL other water bombers in the area.
What was the drone doing there? Well, some reports suggest it was a civilian drone, others say it might have been a media drone, and some say that it was even a drone for monitoring the spread of fire. But here’s the thing, when firefighting aircraft are active, the airspace they utilize is restricted so whoever was flying that drone was doing it in restricted airspace without authorization.
This was also a fairly BIG aircraft. CL-415s are 20.4m long with a wingspan of 28.38m and a max weight (after scooping) of just over 21 tonnes (46,300 lbs). The scooping process needs around 1,340m (4,400 feet) in total. They drop down to 49 feet, line up, and then ‘enter’ for a 410m (1,345 ft) long scoop, lifting up to 6,140 litres (1,622 gal.) of water. They then fly low and slow over fires in order to drop the load. Both are high risk maneuvers. These aircraft aren’t small and they’re very robust, yet this drone caused significant damage.
Keeping tabs on firefighting activity
Around the LA region, KVNY/Van Nuys airport tends to be the main base for these, but there are also helicopters based over at KCMA/Camarillo airport as well. Restricted airspaces are placed over the fire zones (for obvious reasons – fire and aircraft don’t mix well), and low level around the water scoop areas.
You can search for these on the FAA TFR – temporary flight restrictions – site. For example, there are still multiple TFRs related to firefighting, including these, designed to “proved a safe environment for firefighting aircraft ops.”
You can also track the fires by heading to the government sites like this one. And of course, you can track the firefighting aircraft on Flightradar24. Here’s something we wrote about that to help.
How great is the danger?
Drones have caused damage and issues numerous times to aircraft and flight operations. We had the prolonged closure of EGKK/London Gatwick airport back in December 2018. Dubai’s airspace has been closed many times, the most recent at the start of January for nearly an hour. In 2018, one drone hovered very close to an A320 on approach into KLAS/McCarran airport in the USA, while in 2016 another A320 operating at EGLL/London Heathrow actually collided with one.
EASA recorded two serious Airprox events (where collisions were nearly missed) between UAVs and crewed aircraft in 2023. One involved an A320, another a Bombardier BD500. In 2024, the number was significantly higher. Possibly because more are just reporting them.
In December 2024, multiple sightings of large number of ‘mysterious’ drones were also spotted over the New Jersey area of the USA. Though investigation found no evidence of unlawful activity, the FAA temporarily banned all drone flights in 22 areas of New Jersey and 30 around New York in an attempt to try and work out what was going on. These flight restrictions were still in place through mid-January 2025.
The FAA actually has a dedicated site for drone sightings. You can download the reports, and taking a look at October to December 2024, there were over 300 sightings.
UAVs are not always small either. Some commercial UAVs fly significant distances and have service ceilings above the 10,000 feet mark, weighing up to half a tonne at MTOW. One study showed that an eight pound quadcopter drone could rip apart the fan blades of a 9-foot diameter turbofan engine in less than 1/200th of a second.
So, drones are not a good mix with commercial aviation. But here’s the thing – that’s only when they’re misused, i.e. flown into airspaces and near to aircraft when they shouldn’t be.
There are also important benefits
Drones are actually used in firefighting. UAVs can fly into places conventional firefighting aircraft can’t, reducing firefighters’ exposure to hazardous conditions. They can provide footage and data on fires and how they are spreading, hugely increasing situational awareness.
It isn’t just for surveillance either. Drones can be used to fight the fires as well. Companies are working on building large, twin engine drones (they look like light aircraft only without anyone onboard), and plan to fly these in ‘swarms’ of up to 30 together to drop water onto fires.
And then there are uses like bird scaring (at airports), maintenance checks (they can complete an exterior inspection, including all those hard to get to for a human places in under 2 hours). UAVs carrying medical supplies to disaster areas are already helping people, while law enforcement can use them to create 3D models of crash sites, aid in suspect apprehension, and of course surveillance.
Drones are useful things, just dangerous things when used poorly.
How to track drones on Flightradar24
Well, some. Larger uncrewed aerial vehicles (UCAV) can be equipped with ADS-B. At the moment those tend to be operated by military and government agencies. The most-tracked flight on Flightradar24 is often a Global Hawk operated by the US Air Force. Those can operate above commercial airspace, often at 50,000 feet.
For smaller drones, Flightradar24 uses data from the Open Glider Network (OGN), a platform for tracking gliders, drones and other smaller aircraft. OGN uses several tracking technologies including FLARM, which is in essence a simpler version of ADS-B. It has a shorter range, of around 20 to 100km and is generally installed at smaller airports where there is significant glider activity.
You can find this under Visibility in your settings, and OGN/Flarm. If you head to filters, then you can also set the aircraft categories to Drones which includes uncrewed aircraft from smaller drones to professional UAVs to military aircraft.
One to watch for is the Air White Whale company W5000 drone, which is just about the biggest in the world. It has a MTOW of 10.8 tonnes (24,000 lbs) and can carry up to 5 tonnes (11,000 lbs) of payload. The plan is to use it for cargo flights, which its 2,600km range and 526 km/h top speed will help with. It was revealed in September 2024, so expect to see some in the skies in the not too distant future as they begin flight testing.
You can also find current NOTAMs related to drone and UAV authorized flights on the FAA NOTAM search website. There were 1915 listed internationally when this author checked ‘unmanned’ and probably a few more when searching ‘drone’ or ‘UAV’ specifically.
9 Responses
Please can you supply any evidence to support your statement that drones caused the “prolonged closure of EGKK/London Gatwick airport back in December 2018” As I recall there was never any proof that an drone was the cause and that the only drones were those from media or police sources after the alleged event.
I am drone hobbyist. My drones are registered with the FAA. I have followed all regulations in order to fly.
How some drone flyers violate every rule, regulation and common sense is beyond me! Flying above stadiums, fires, accidents and other disasters is simply criminal. Lock them up!
That small minority will ruin it for everyone else. The FAA will regulate the hobby out of existence. If we don’t help by reporting anyone that violates the norm. More self enforcement is required.
I fly radio controlled model aircraft in a rural area of England.
I have insurance and a certificate of competence and the models I fly are small, lightweight and I always keep a lookout for fullsize activities.
I’m worried that aeromodellers and flyers like myself may be grouped in with the drone flyers and we may face restrictions through no fault of our own.
Very interesting article. Safety first so action including legal action is needed.
As a person interested in aviation since childhood, I found this article on drones very interesting. I find the information on this channel highly appreciated and I enjoy reading most articles. Thank you for your time and research into these stories.
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The air white whale does not hover. The only so called drones that hover are multi rotor craft with 4,6 or 8 motors and are powered by batterys. The camera drones made by DJI cannot fly higher then 1640ft and they don’t fly very fast. They also can’t fly for longer then 30min if that. There are some very large multi rotor drones that are alot bigger then the DJI drones but they cost alot of money not what the average person is going to be able to afford.
I found this interesting because drones should stay away from active air crafts like these especially when fighting fires.
Regarding the closure of London Gatwick, this is an interesting and well researched article
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/01/the-mystery-of-the-gatwick-drone