NY Man flies drone near NYPD helicopter. Gets arrested Instantly (Close call)

A Drone Above the Bridge

Shortly after midnight on July 7, 2014, an NYPD helicopter encountered a small drone near the George Washington Bridge. Police said the drone climbed to a high altitude and came close enough to the helicopter to prompt a change in the helicopter's flight path.

The Pursuit

According to the police account reported at the time, the drone was seen near the bridge and the helicopter followed it north toward Manhattan. The aircraft eventually landed near Audubon and Fort George avenues. Officers on the helicopter alerted ground units, who went to the landing location.

Two Arrests

Police arrested Remy Castro, 23, and Wilkins Mendoza, 34. They were charged with felony unsafe endangerment and released without bail after arraignment. Contemporary reports also documented a dispute over the aircraft's altitude and over what actually happened between the drone and helicopter.

The original police account said the drone came within 800 feet of the helicopter and reached about 2,000 feet. The men's lawyer disputed the altitude and argued that the drone model was limited to about 300 feet. Later reporting based on an ATC recording challenged the police description of the encounter, and by October 2014 the charges had been dropped. The incident therefore cannot responsibly be presented as a simple, uncontested near-collision.

The case was disputed almost immediately. The police description said the drone reached about 2,000 feet and came within 800 feet of the helicopter. The defense said the DJI Phantom 2 used by the men was limited to about 300 feet. Those accounts cannot both describe the aircraft's maximum altitude, so the altitude is reported as an allegation rather than an established measurement.

The legal outcome also changed the way the incident should be described. Contemporary reporting in October 2014 said prosecutors dropped the charges against Castro and Mendoza. That means the initial arrest should not be presented as a final finding that the two men were guilty of unsafe endangerment.

The two men were not simply arrested at the bridge. The police helicopter followed the drone to its landing location, and ground officers then responded to the area. Two remote-control drones were recovered according to later reporting.

The legal record is important because the initial charges did not remain the final outcome. Later reporting said the charges were dropped, while other reporting questioned the original police account of the helicopter's movements.

The later legal developments are essential to the chronology. The arrests occurred immediately after the encounter, but the charges were later dropped. Reporting also documented competing descriptions of the altitude and the helicopter's movement, so the original allegation cannot be presented as an uncontested fact.

The FAA will look into the incident.

“GoPro drones have gained immense popularity, but their amateur operators are posing risks to other aircraft.”

Accident facts

Chronology of the event

Sources