(Source: The Guardian)
Daniel Verley, 26, faces charges of reckless endangerment and operating a drone in a New York City public park outside of a prescribed area.
A police spokesman said Verley was a teacher at the Academy of Innovative Technology in Brooklyn. Calls to the school and the Department of Education for comment were not immediately returned on Friday.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Verley had an attorney who could comment on the charges on his behalf.
The drone buzzed over the court in Louis Armstrong stadium on Thursday night before crashing into the seats. US Tennis Association spokesman Chris Widmaier said no one was injured.
The black device flew diagonally through the arena during the next-to-last game of a second-round match that 26th-seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy won 6-1, 6-4 over Monica Niculescu of Romania.
Pennetta said she heard the drone fly by and was not sure what it was. Her initial reaction, she said, was that it might have been a bomb, saying: “A little bit scary, I have to say.
“With everything going on in the world … I thought: ‘OK, it’s over.’ That’s how things happen,” she said, adding that neither the chair umpire nor tournament officials told her that it was a drone.
It broke into pieces upon landing and the match was only briefly interrupted between points while police and fire department personnel went to investigate.
“The chair umpire just wanted to wait for an OK from the police to be able to continue,” Pennetta said, “even if, truthfully, I don’t think even they knew what it was.”
She said her coach and physical therapist were sitting in the opposite end of the stadium from where the drone crashed and they told her later they were afraid, too. “All of these [security measures] and then it comes in from above,” Pennetta said.
The episode happened a little before 8.30pm during the day’s last match in the 10,000-seater stadium. Pennetta and Niculescu were originally scheduled to play on the much smaller Court 17 but their match was moved because four earlier matches in Armstrong wrapped up early.
Continue Reading at TheGuardian.com…
Alan is serial entrepreneur, active angel investor, and a drone enthusiast. He co-founded DRONELIFE.com to address the emerging commercial market for drones and drone technology. Prior to DRONELIFE.com, Alan co-founded Where.com, ThinkingScreen Media, and Nurse.com. Recently, Alan has co-founded Crowditz.com, a leader in Equity Crowdfunding Data, Analytics, and Insights. Alan can be reached at alan(at)dronelife.com