Two weeks after a drone flying over M&T Bank Stadium temporarily halted play in the AFC Championship between the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens, a Pennsylvania man has been charged in connection with the incident, according to USA Today.
Maryland State Police allegedly tracked the drone from over the stadium to a house a half-mile away where 44-year-old Matthew Herbert was revealed as the pilot.
Herbert drove down from Pennsylvania to watch the game at a friend’s house.
While the delay was going on, CBS’ Jim Nantz referred to the delay as an “administrative timeout” which caused a bit of concern immediately, but Nantz clarified that “You may not have heard of one like that before, but it was a drone apparently that was interfering too close to the play. It was not ours, we’re told.”
"An administrative timeout… you may have not heard of one like that before. But it was a drone apparently that was interfering too close to the play. It was not ours, we're told." – Jim Nantz pic.twitter.com/gKF9zlyklF
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 28, 2024
For obvious reasons, the airspace over a major sporting event in a major city is highly regulated. Per FAA guidelines, any event in which there will be 30,000 people or more gathered triggers a temporary flight restriction in a three-mile radius around the area.
Herbert faces a maximum sentence of three years for operating an unregistered drone in restricted airspace.
The lesson here is, of course, even if you’re just trying to take photos or videos, don’t fly your drone over a large public gathering.
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