The U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia will not pursue charges against the man who flew a drone onto the White House grounds in January, according to a government official.
The investigation conducted by the U.S. Secret Service showed that overnight Jan. 25 into Jan. 26, the man was flying a borrowed quadcopter drone around his Washington DC apartment and outside his window, according to the official.
In an interview with authorities, at about 3 a.m. the night of the incident, the man said he watched the drone reach 100 feet high over 10th street NW in DC and then fly West. The man lost control of the drone and was unable to recover. He went to sleep on the Jan. 26 not knowing where the drone was and reported the incident to the U.S. Secret Service after waking up to news reports of the drone going down on White House grounds.
A spokesman at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which employs the drone flyer, said no action had been taken against him for the incident.
According to the official, a forensic analysis showed that the drone was not under control of its operator when it went down.
The Federal Aviation Administration is conducting a review of the incident.
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