Canadian Cops Blow Off Drone Operation Laws, Crash Their Drone Into A Landing Airplane
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Someone finally hit an airplane with a drone while flying it near an airport. And of all people, it was the cops. (h/t Justin England, via Hackaday)The Transportation Safety Board is investigating after a York regional police drone collided with an airplane approaching Buttonville Airport in Markham last week.Police confirmed to CityNews they had deployed a Remote Piloted Vehicle (RPV), known more commonly as a drone, as part of an investigation near the airport on August 10.While it was being operated, the drone collided with a Cessna 172 operated by Canadian Flyers International that was attempting to land. There was an instructor and student pilot on board.No injuries were reported and the plane was able to land without any further incidents. This may sound like an open and transparent response by the York police about its irresponsible drone piloting, but this admission about the incident at the Toronto airport was prompted by the Canadian government's report on the incident, which was released eight days after the accident.And the police haven't had much else to say about its errant drone, which apparently came only inches from killing everyone on board.Dario Matrundola, who is one of the owners of the flight school Canadian Flyers, said had the drone struck a few inches further away, both occupants could’ve been killed.“It would have been a tragedy, it would’ve been loss of life or injuries for sure. The pilots are very lucky they were able to land the plane and avoid injuries,” said Matrundola. Here's Transport Canada's summary of the accident:The instructor for a Canadian Flyers International Inc. Cessna 172N (C-GKWL) reported that they had just turned from base leg to final for Runway 15 at Toronto/Buttonville, ON (CYKZ) and were established and stable at 1100 ASL, or about 500 AGL, when they felt a jolt that pushed them back on their seat. They thought they had hit a large bird. They proceeded to land. There was no change in configuration or power since they were about to land. When exiting the aircraft, they were shocked to see a major dent on the left underside of the engine cowling. The airbox was also bent. A few hours later, a police detective confirmed a York Regional Police drone had struck their aircraft. The aircraft suffered major damage, including a propeller strike. The report also points out NavCanada, which oversees the country's civil air navigation system, was not made aware of the drone flight nor the York Police's interest in sending a drone up into the airport's airspace to engage in an investigation.If this had been a "civilian" drone, the public would have been informed immediately and regularly updated with progress on catching the perp. But this was a cop flight, so the cops acknowledged the flight when they could no longer deny it, and only because they were now the subject of an investigation by another government body.It is indeed illegal to fly a drone within three nautical miles of an airport. This ban on operation can only be temporarily lifted with the explicit permission of NavCanada. Obviously this didn't happen. The only question now should be whether the York Police is an individual or a corporation.Fines for individuals -
up to $1,000 for flying without a drone pilot certificate -
up to $1,000 for flying unregistered or unmarked drones -
up to $1,000 for flying where you are not allowed -
up to $3,000 for putting aircraft and people at risk Fines for corporations -
up to $5,000 for flying without a drone pilot certificate -
up to $5,000 for flying unregistered or unmarked drones -
up to $5,000 for flying where you are not allowed -
up to $15,000 for putting aircraft and people at risk And don't forget to stack the charges!If you break more than one rule, you could receive multiple penalties. Supposedly, everyone is just waiting for the TSB to conclude its investigation. And then there will be more waiting while the York Police engages in its own investigation. Possibly in the next few weeks or months, the news will have cycled often enough someone can fire off a press release late in the afternoon just ahead of the next convenient bank holiday.Maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised. Maybe someone will get rung up for being completely irresponsible on top of actually violating federal law. But I doubt it. When a citizen does it, nothing can get the police to shut up about it. But when the police do it, no member of the public can get them to start talking, much less treat their own internal lawbreaking as seriously as they treat lawbreaking by outsiders.
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posted at: 12:00am on 28-Aug-2021
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Copyright Scammers Getting More Sophisticated, Just As The US Is About To Make It Easier For Them
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Back in May, we wrote about the growing number of pure copyright scammers, using completely made up claims of copyright infringement as a form of a phishing technique. As I mentioned in a comment, we get multiple such messages every week here at Techdirt -- with almost identical comments being placed (or attempted at least -- since our spam filter seems to have caught all or most of them) on various Techdirt articles claiming infringement. They always came with a link to "the evidence," (which we never clicked of course).These scams are different than standard copyright trolling, in which there may even be a kernel of truth in the initial copyright claim. Here, the scammers are just phishing for logins or other private data, and using the ridiculously overbroad power of copyright statutory damages to frighten people into coughing up the information. And, not surprisingly, the scam is evolving. Sophos recently reported that it's now seeing scammers sending the copyright threats with phone numbers to call, rather than phishing links.In this case, the crooks are deliberately avoiding using a call to action link that leads to a fake login page or an unlikely domain name, which could easily be blocked by cybersecurity products or even by your browser.They've copied a trick that tech support scammers have been using for years, and that some ransomware scammers have recently adopted, namely giving you a toll-free phone number to call for help.Given that the call is free, and given that phoning up doesn't directly expose your computer or your browser to fake websites or booby-trapped downloadsit feels as though dialling the number ought to be a low-risk option by means of which you can quickly find out whether this is a scam or not.All we can say is, Don't do it!Never feel bullied, pressurised, lured, seduced or cajoled into contacting someone you don't know on their say-so.Remember that the crooks at the other end of the phone line in this case are almost certainly not in the US, even though the contact number is directed via a US tollfree service.And these scammers take calls like this for a living, so they know every trick in the social engineering book.The best that can happen if you do call back is that you will reveal nothing about yourself that you didn't mean to; the worst is that you might just blurt out something you later wish you hadn't. Of course, what's really concerning about all this is that, very soon, these scammers will have another tool to use to intimidate people. At the end of this year, the Copyright Office is supposed to be launching the Copyright Claims Board, the key part of the CASE Act that Congress slipped into a "must pass" government funding bill at the end of last year.Defenders of the CASE Act insisted that the system can't be abused, because it includes an "opt-out." We've already detailed why that's not going to work -- but it also ignores that not all abuse actually involves using the system in the first place. Instead, merely threatening people with taking them to the Copyright Claims Board will almost certainly be added to the playbook of these scammers. Since there will be news articles and coverage about the CCB and what it means for people, it will feel that much more "legitimate" to potential victims of these scammers.
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posted at: 12:00am on 28-Aug-2021
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