Dude Who Flew Drone Into California Firefighting Plane Found And Punished

Damage to the wing of a  "Super Scooper"
firefighting plane after a drone collided with
the plane as it was fighting last month
s big wildfires in California. 

 The person whose drone collided with a firefighting aircraft during the devastating January California wildfires has been caught.  

It's hard enough to fight basically uncontrollable wildfires in the age of climate change, and looky loos flying tones make it worse.

In this case, a man flying a drone ended up crashing it into a firefighting plane. The incident grounded the plane for days due to damage to its wing. 

According to the Associated Press: 

"Peter Tripp Akemann faces up to one year in prison, and a judge will determine his sentence, acting U.S. attorney Joseph McNally said. As part of the plea agreement, he will have to complete 150 hours of wildfire-related community service and pay $65,000 in restitution for the damage to the plane, McNally said."

He can probably afford the fine, which allowed Akemann to avoid jail time. He is a co-founder of Call of Duty studios.

 Akemann launched the drone from a Santa Monica parking structure on January 9.  It flew about 1.5 miles  toward the fire in Palisades, California, but then he lost sight of it. Which is a no-no. The drone crashed into what is known as a Super Scooper that was carrying two firefighters

The airspace were Akemann's drone was flying was under FAA flight restrictions at the time, theregister.com reported.

These Super Scooper planes, from Quebec are piloted so they skim the surface of a lake or ocean, where they scoop up about 1,500 gallons of water. Then the planes fly over the wildfire to dump the water on the flames.  It's pretty fascinating to watch. 

After the collision, the Super Scooper pilot was able to land the plane safely, but it was grounded for several days to repair a hole in the left wing caused by the drone. 

Prosecutors said Akemann did not intend to cause the collision. But, as Akil Davis, the assistant director of the FBI Los Angeles Field office said, "Lack of common sense and ignorance of your duty does not shield you from criminal charges." 

In a statement to media. Akemann's defense attorney, Glen Jonas said Akemann is "deeply sorry for the mistake he made" and "accepts responsibility for his grave error in judgement.

Even so, as theregister.com reported, "Akemann's attorneys tried to lay some of the blame at the feet of drone maker DJI for not properly geofencing the area to prevent the flight.

The fateful flight occurred days before DJI announced it was scaling back geofencing restrictions in favor of simply notifying drone pilots that they were operating in restricted airspace."  

It's unclear whether DJI had begun doing that scaling back process when Akemann launched his drown. 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday California Fires Update: So Far, No New Big Catacylsm, But Deep Danger, Sorrow Remain

Areas in red are under a red flag warning, meaning destructive
fires are possible today. Areas outlined in purple are in a 
"particularly dangerous situation" where any fires that
start or spread would be extremely fast moving and
erratic. Click on map to make it bigger easier to see.

A glimmer of good news in California Tuesday as winds weren't quite as strong as forecast, helping firefighters hold the lines on the giant wildfires burning there. 

But today could be a long one. 

Winds have picked up dangerously, gusting to 50 mph in some areas. That's more than enough to spread embers and start new fires. Early morning video from television KTLA early this morning showed fairly strong, gusty winds already blowing through Ventura County.

Reports of 35 to 50 mph with higher gusts have been coming in all morning. That rare, "particularly dangerous situation" fire weather warning remains in effect through 3 p.m, local time today for Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

Residents have been told to have  a "to go" bad ready by the front door, and be ready to leave, and quickly at the drop of a hat. 

There are far more firefighters deployed in and around Los Angeles today than when the fires started last week, so the hope is those resources can gain the upper hand if a new fire starts. 

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports about 50 arrests for looting, flying drones in fire zones, violating curfew and other crimes. Three of those were arrested for arson, but the fires they allegedly started remained small, were quickly put out, and were not near the disaster zone.

So far, the death toll is 25, but up to 30 people remain missing. Searchers are looking for bodies in the rubble of some of the worst hit neighborhoods, 

Here's one snapshot of the new reality Angelenos are facing. One resident said the sound of helicopters rattling around overhead all night and through the pre-dawn hours would have once driven him nuts. But the fact that those helicopters are trying to prevent more destruction is actually soothing, and helps him fall asleep. 

 OUTLOOK

If the region can get through today without existing fires going out of control again or new ones igniting, then the region gets a brief reprieve,  

Winds should relax again toward evening  and stay fairly calm at least through Saturday, which is great. Some of the lighter breezes could actually come off the Pacific  Ocean instead of the desert. Those ocean winds will bring a little needed humidity, but unfortunately no rain.

 Plus, the nightmare is far from over.  Meteorologists say strong, dry easterly winds might redevelop early next week, and there is still no real rain in the forecast through the end of the month

A new fire started in Ventura County Monday evening, forcing some evacuations.  But firefighters managed to put a stop its forward progress  after it consumed about 61 acres. Thankfully, so far no houses or other buildings, and the fire is about half contained.

Another fire started Tuesday evening in the San Fernando Valley, but firefighters quickly pounced on it. So far, that fire hasn't spread too much, and it hasn't prompted evacuations and it's still largely under control.

Fingers crossed there. 

A very large wildfire was burning in Mexico, just south of the International border below San Diego County, California. While the U.S. is not immediately threatened by the fire, it bears watching. 

Videos:

Some dog videos in the mix this time. 

In this first one, I have to tell the back story. It's heartbreaking but ultimately has a happy ending. On the first day of the fire, NBC reporter Liz Kruetz interviewed a distraught man trying to reach his home where his two dogs were trapped as the fire closed in. "I literally rescued them off the street, they deserve better than this," Casey Colvin tearfully told the reporter. 

Firefighters rescued one of Colvin's dogs before his house was consumed by flames, but the other one, Oreo ran off. For several days, he worried about dog, though there were photos indicating Oreo was still alive, 

Then, the same reporter helped Colvin get to his destroyed house on Sunday, where he found Oreo alive. The reunion is joyous. 

If any of you trolls pick on this guy for his emotions, I hope the rest of your life is one of misery. The traumatized man represents all of those victimized and distraught by the fire. They're clinging to any good news they can get. Colvin represents them all. 

Click on this link to watch this gripping video, or if you see the image below click on that. Make sure the Kleenex is handy:  

In this case, a dog is rescued from the fire. The understandably frightened dog was trapped in the yard of a house in flames. First responders rescued it, and a photographer snapped photos. This inspired an outpouring of donations to help dogs and other animals who were victims of the fire. .  Click on this link to view or if you see the image below, click on that. 

In the next video, a passerby in a neighborhood rescues a woman and her four dogs whose house is on fire and whose car won't start, They braved a blizzard of burning embers to get out of harms way. The video is pretty harrowing. Click on this link to view or if you see the image below click on that.

A drive through Altadena, California after the fire. You can tell despite the destruction this was an absolutely beautiful community. If there were no fire, I'd live there in a heartbeat.  Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below click on that. 

 

Pupdate: Owner Of Dog Abandoned Near Highway In Hurricane Faces Charges

The horrible person who allegedly abandoned this
dog tied to a fence near Tampa, Florida as
Hurricane Milton approached has been arrested.
The dog, as we noted last week, was rescued by
a Florida Highway Patrol Trooper.

 Remember that dog I wrote about recently that was abandoned near Interstate 75 outside of Tampa, Florida in floodwaters as Hurricane Milton approached?  

As we wrote, the dog was rescued. And there was the predictable outrage over this. Now, the person who allegedly left the pooch there to almost certainly die in the hurricane has been arrested.

The Tampa Bay Times tell us: 

Giovanny Aldama Garcia, 23 was booked into jail Monday on a charge of aggravated cruelty to animals, which is a felony. 

The Tampa Bay Times continues the story by telling us Garcia called an animal shelter in Hillsborough, County, Florida that he was the dog's owner but would give it up if someone would love and care for it.

Which is the opposite of what he did, but there you go.

Offices later talked to Garcia at his home in Ruskin, Florida, who said he had the dog since it was a puppy but could no longer care for it. 

That's when a normal person might turn the dog into a reputable animal shelter but that's not Garcia, apparently. 

Garcia said he was with this mother on Interstate 75 during the mass evacuation ahead of Hurricane Milton when his mother let the dog out of the car. The narrative doesn't say why, or details how it ended up tied to that fence in floodwater.

Apparently, Garcia saw social media posts about the dog's rescue and try to reclaim the pooch.

Not happening, by the way. 

Garcia will not be allowed to have the dog, which has since been renamed Trooper. A foster family is caring for Trooper for now, until he's ready for an adoption into a forever home. 

More details emerged over how the dog was found. He was tied to a fence quite a distance from the roadway, in a flooded low spot difficult for passing motorists to notice.

However, in rainy weather hours before ferocious Hurricane Milton arrived, an eagle-eyed woman in a car traveling on Interstate 75 that day spotted the dog and called police, the Tampa Bay Times reported.  

Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Orlando Morales drove to the area and initially couldn't see the dog. However, he began calling the dog over a portable speaker and the dog poked his head up above the brush. Rescue was at hand. 

Hillsborough County State Attorney Suzy Lopez said some crimes can get enhanced charges if they are committed during a state of emergency, as this case was. However, animal cruelty is not one of those crimes, and she urged the Florida legislature to change the law so enhanced charges could be filed if something like this ever happens again. 

Meanwhile, Garcia was released from jail Tuesday on $2,500 cash bond.  He could face up to five years in jail if found guilty. 

A Vile Horrible Person Left A Dog To Die In Hurricane Milton: Spoiler: Dog Rescued

Florida Highway Patrol troopers found this dog in
this situation, abandoned, tied to a fence amid
flood waters as Hurricane Milton approached
on Wednesday.  The troopers rescued the dog and
its safe and doing well now. I really hope
whoever did this is NOT safe and doing well now. 

 There is a special place in hell for whoever did the following.

As Hurricane Milton approached Florida Wednesday, somebody tied a dog to a fence in for what for the pooch was chest deep water off Interstate 75 near Tampa in a spot virtually invisible to passing motorists.  

Thankfully, either an eagle-eyed motorist called police, or a very alert Florida Highway Patrol Trooper spotted the dog and rescued it. 

Body cam video taken by the trooper who rescued the dog shows the officer under rainy skies wading into a soggy, puddle-strewn field next to the highway to reach what appears to be an English bull terrier. 

As the trooper approaches the frightened dog, it growled and barked at the trooper, who replied to the dog, "It's OK, I don't blame you."

Florida Highway Patrol posted the body cam video on social media with the caption, "Do NOT do this to your pets, please."

Yeah, no kidding!

The dog was taken to a veterinarian who gave the pooch a clean bill of health. The Highway Patrol posted a followup photo of the dog, looking understandably happier, safe in the police cruiser on a blanket, being taken to the vet.

Since it was a highway patrolman that rescued the dog, it has been named Trooper. 

The dog will probably be put up for adoption, though at this point, the Leon County Florida Humane Society, where Trooper is staying, says he is not up for adoption now.  Given the publicity this incident has received, I imagine this dog will find a loving forever home. 

Trooper needs time to de-stress and recover, the Humane Society said on social media: "We can't imagine the situation that ended with him tied to this pole and left him without any hope. It's hard even to think about how scared he must have been as cars raced by, the water rose to his belly and the storm clouds darkened."  

The Humane Society also said, contrary to false reports circulating on line, Trooper has not been reunited with family or anybody else. If whoever left Trooper tied up like that, they will certainly face charges. 

Quite predictably, this incident sparked outrage everywhere. 

One example: Readers of this blog know I don't exactly love Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but I'm 100 percent in agreement when he said at a Wednesday afternoon press conference:

"I hope they find the person who did it, and that person should have the book thrown at them. We've got very good laws against animal cruelty....we don't have tolerance for that in Florida. I thought it was outrageous that somebody would do that."

Whenever whoever did this to the poor dog, name them and shame them for sure!  

Did Factory Supervisors Cause Deaths Of Workers In Tennessee Helene Flood?

Managers at an Impact Plastics plant in Erwin, Tennessee
allegedly did not let employees leave as Hurricane Helene
floodwaters rose around them. This resulted in six deaths.

Another huge disaster, another case in which a major employer did not protect their workers from danger as they should have. 

At the Impact Plastics factory in Erwin, a small town in eastern Tennessee, employees kept working last Friday as waters in the nearby Nolichucky River rose.

Erwin is in the western foothills of the Appalachians, very close to the North Carolina border and right next to the tall mountains that collected two to three feet of rain from Hurricane Helene and a torrential rainstorm that immediately preceded the tropical system. 

They kept working into the power went out and water swirled into the factory's parking lot. Ultimately 11 factory workers and a contractor were swept away as they tried to escape and only five of them were rescued. The others are dead or presumed dead. Not all the bodies have been found. 

There's plenty of credible stories emerging there that plant managers wouldn't let people flee the rising flood waters until it was far too late. 

Here's part of a report in the Knoxville News Sentinel:

"Jacob Ingram has worked at Impact Plastics for near nearly eight months as a mold changer. It's a role, he said, that keeps him on his feet for the entire first shift.

As the waters rose outside, managers wouldn't let employees leave, he said. Instead, managers told people to move their cars away from the rising water. Ingram moved his two separate times because the water wouldn't stop rising. 

'They should've evacuated when we got the flash flood warnings, and when they saw the parking lot,' Ingram told Knox News. 'When we moved our card we should've evacuated then...we asked them if we should evacuate and they told us not yet, it wasn't bad enough. 

'And by the time it was bad enough, it was too late unless you had a four-wheel drive.'"

Ingram went on to tell the paper that he and 10 others fought their way through waist deep water when a semitruck driver called them over and helped them get on an open-bed truck, which was packed full of large flexible gas pipes.

A piece of debris smacked into the truck, knocking a woman off and sweeping her away. Then another piece of debris did exactly the same thing. Now two women were gone. 

Then the truck was hit by a much larger piece of debris, overturning the entire vehicle. Ingram thought to grab onto the plastic gas pipes, because he had seen some other pieces of the material floating downstream rather than sinking. 

Ingram and four other employees floated a half mile downstream until they hit a large pile of debris they could hang on to. An hour after that, a Tennessee National Guard helicopter plucked them from the pile to save them.  

We know one of the women who fell off the truck died. The body of Bertha Mendoza, 56, was found on September 29. Others from the truck are missing. 

Ingram managed to post some harrowing videos on Facebook that make it clear at least to me that employees of Impact Plastics should have been evacuated far sooner. 

Impact Plastics officials are circling the wagons on these damning accounts. As the Associated Press reports:

"Impact Plastics said in a statement Monday that it 'continued monitor weather conditions' Friday and that managers dismissed employees 'when water began to cover the parking lot and the adjacent service road, and the plant lost power.'"

But in a separate interview, Ingram told WVLT: "I actually asked one of the higher ups (if we should leave) and they told me, 'No, not yet.'. They had to ask someone before we was able to leave. Even though it was already above the doors of the cars."

 Ingram told WVLT that employees were made to stay on site for 15 to 20 minutes after the power went out. 

CBS News reported another employee, Robert Jarvis, gave exactly the same account as Ingram.  Jarvis also asked this question during an interview with television station WBIR: "Why would you make us stay there? Why would  you keep us there if you knew it was going to be bad, if you were monitoring it? Why were we still there?"

Well, my cynical but possibly accurate answer is some mucky muck with Impact Plastics somewhere was loathe to let their commodity, I mean human beings, get out of harms way. That is until the power failed, at which point the factory could no longer make revenue. By then, of course, it was too late for many of the employees to flee.  

Or, if I'm more charitable, the culture at Impact Plastics is that supervisors were tyrants, and there's not a lot of jobs in eastern Tennessee so employees were fearful of getting fired for, you know, trying to save their own lives. 

Notice how carefully Impact Plastics statements are worded. The statement said that while most employees left immediately, some remained on or near the premises. Yeah, because by then they were trapped by the raging floodwaters. 

The owner of a manufacturing plant near Impact Plastics had sent his employees home before they could become endangered and tried to drive a piece of heavy equipment to Impact Plastics in a rescue attempt. 

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is now looking into the allegations against Impact Plastics at the direction of a local prosecutor. 

EMPLOYEE DISASTER SAFETY OFTEN IGNORED

I admit part of all this might be Monday morning quarterbacking. I'm sure nobody in Erwin could have imagined things would get that bad that fast.  This is why in the same town, close to 60 people ended up trapped on the roof of a small local hospital as rapids raced around and through the building. 

Still, it fits a pattern in which too often, keeping employees safe during dangerous weather is just a drag on profits, sure to make shareholders unhappy. What's a few dead employees it allows you to buy a second yacht, right?

I've covered other examples like what allegedly happened at Impact Plastics. 

After a deadly tornado outbreak in December, 2021, employees of a Mayfield, Kentucky candle factory hit by a powerful tornado that night said managers would not let them leave to seek safer shelter ahead of the approaching twister. Nine people who were in the factory died in the storm. 

During that same, December, 2021 tornado outbreak, six people died in an Amazon distribution center in Illinois when a tornado hit. Employees there said they were not given the opportunity to seek safer shelter when tornado warnings blared.

In that same tornado, an Amazon driver said she was told by supervisors to keep driving instead of taking shelter despite the fact a tornado warning was in effect.

Also, legislators in Texas and Florida prevented municipalities from enacting ordinances that would have mandated water and rest breaks for outdoor workers toiling in those states' excessive summer heat. 

Which proves that lawmakers and Florida and Texas, and too many corporations, regard especially low wage workers that to them, it's no big deal if a worker dies because of dangerous weather. To them, these workers are not human beings. Just machines to replace when they are "defective" and break down in rough weather conditions. 

I really hope those responsible for the deaths at Impact Plastics are held accountable. 

Colorado Farmers Create Fake Drought To Rake In Federal Money. Ends VERY Badly For Them

Two Colorado farmers tampered with a 
federal weather station like this one,
damaging rain gauges to make it look
like less rain fell than actually did.
The scheme was organized so they
could receive federal drought payoffs.

 Two Colorado farmers learned an extremely expensive lesson when they faked a drought by tampering with federal rain gauges, the Washington Post reports. 

Prosecutors said Patrick Esch and Edward Dean Jagers II cut wires, poured silicone and loosened bolts in an effort to keep those rain gauges empty so they could make false crop insurance claims for "drought."  

Federal officials were not amused, according to WaPo:

"Under the criminal pleas, Esch was ordered to pay $2,084,441 in restitution and Jagers was ordered to pay $1,036,625. Those amounts have been paid, Colorado federal district attorney's office spokeswoman Melissa Brandon told the Washington Post on Monday. 

But wait! There's more!

"The civil settlement from a whistleblower involved in the case requires Esch to pay an addition $3 million - $676,871.74 of which is restitution, per court records - plus 3 percent interest over the next 12 months, Brandon said. Jagers has paid his required additional $500,000."

Esch, 72, also spend two months in prison. Jagers, 63, spent six months in the slammer. 

Some of the details get juicy, according to CBS Colorado.

Apparently, Jaber and Esch had two other people involved in this fake drought conspiracy. This takes on the air of a bad TV crime drama. Says CBS Colorado:

".....one of the co-conspirators turned on the group and extorted Esch in particular. The unidentified male threatened to expose the entire enterprise to authorities in exchange for Esch paying the man's bond for release from jail and giving several five-figure payments to he man's girlfriend.

Esch, according to his plea agreement, even shrugged off the man's admitted theft of an all-terrain vehicle from Esch in exchange for the man's silence. 

In August of 2023, a month before Jager and Esch reached their plea agreements with prosecutors, this unidentified male co-conspirator escaped from prison. This triggered a nationwide manhunt and caused Esch and his family 'to go into hiding,' as stated in a court document Two weeks after the escape the co-conspirator was found dead."

Inquiring minds want to know what the co-conspirator died of. 

And I bet Esch in particular really, really regrets his fun and games with rain gauges, given how screwed up his life is now. 

 

Greenhouse Gas Smuggling? It's A Thing

   There's now a global treaty to ban HFCs, a 
chemical for air conditioners and refrigerators
because they are extremely potent greenhouse
gases. But illegal smuggling of this gas
is a thing, and a subject of crackdowns

 We've all heard of smuggling migrants, drugs, contraband, what have you across the U.S./Mexican border.  

But greenhouse gases?

It's a thing. Who knew?

The U.S. Justice Department tells us Michael Hart, 58, of San Diego has become the first person prosecuted under a 2020 federal law aimed at phasing out a terribly potent greenhouse gas. 

Prosecutors said Hart purchased this stuff in Mexico,  hit it under a tarp and tools in his truck, then sold the gases online at places like Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp.   

No, Hart wasn't somehow selling carbon dioxide or methane, which hardly anybody would want to buy anyway. 

It was stuff called hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs which are used big time in air conditioning and refrigeration. Or at least they were until recently, when it became clear this gas was worsening climate change. 

THE BACKGROUND

Back in the day, another chemical, chlorofluorocarbon, or CFCs were used in air conditioning and refrigeration and stuff like that.  But CFS were found to be wrecking the ozone layer, especially above the South Pole. 

That put humans at higher risk of illnesses like skin cancer and cataracts, and also messed with the ecosystem. So, in the late 1980s, in a rare model of global cooperation, the Montreal Protocol was enacted, which banned the worldwide use of CFS.

The Montreal Protocol worked: The Ozone Layer has been repairing itself ever since this international treaty went into effect. 

We still needed air conditioning and refrigeration and such, so it was on to the HFCs, which were widely used in the 1980s and 1990s.

But oops! HFCs turn out to be an incredibly potent greenhouse gas.  It's 1,000 times more effective at trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere than that old stuff that was destroying the Ozone Layer. Also about 1,000 times worse than carbon dioxide for doing the same thing. 

So the United States banned HFCs and signed on to an amended to the international Montreal Protocol, called the Kigali Amendment. 

Getting rid of HFCs is another rare moment of agreement. Business interests like it because they feel it will make the United States more competitive in a global economy. (We're manufacturing alternatives to HFCs)  Environmentalists like the ban on this stuff because, well, climate change. 

There's always holdouts, though, which brings us back to the smuggling. 

The United Nations Environment Program says an illicit trade in HFCs spans the globe, as I guess there's still a lot of demand to repair existing refrigerators and air conditioners using this gas.  The European Union over the years has seized hundreds of metric tons of HFCs, Chemical and Engineering News reported back in 2021.

Organized crime groups do most of the smuggling because HFCs are often more profitable than illicit drugs.

Of course, the U.S. Justice Department's prosecution of a HFC smuggler is welcome and I hope for more such actions.  But the problem probably won't fade away until appliances and machinery using HFCs wear out to the point they have to be replaced.

Those replacements will mostly use safer substances that don't add much added risk to the climate. 

Until I suppose they find something wrong with the new stuff, too.