Peter Akemann, the former president of Skydance Interactive, has pleaded guilty of recklessly flying a drone that collided with a firefighting plane that was combatting the Pacific Palisades wildfire on Jan. 9.
Akemann was flying a DJI Mini 3 Pro drone over the Palisades fire when it collided with the wing of a Canadair CL-415 Super Scooper provided by the Quebec government. The damage was severe enough to ground the plane, halting any help in fighting the fire. Akemann agreed to a guilty plea of one count of unsafe operation of an unmanned aircraft and a misdemeanor charge that result in upt to a year in federal prison.
“This defendant recklessly flew an aircraft into airspace where first responders were risking their lives in an attempt to protect lives and property,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph T. McNally said in a statement on Friday. “This damage caused to the Super Scooper is a stark reminder that flying drones during times of emergency poses an extreme threat to personnel trying to help people and compromises the overall ability of police and fire to conduct operations. As this case demonstrates, we will track down drone operators who violate the law and interfere with the critical work of our first responders.”
Alongside his misdemeanor charge possibly resulting in a year of prison time, Akemann also agreed to pay the government of Quebec the full restitution and repairs for the Super Scooper – estimated at around $65,000. The former Skydance exec said he was “deeply sorry” according to a statement released by his attorneys Glen T. Jonas and Vicki Podberesky.
“He accepts responsibility for his grave error in judgment, and is cooperating with the government in effort to make amends,” the statement read. “There are a number of mitigating factors that will come to light during the court proceedings including Mr. Akemann’s reliance on the DJI Drone’s geo fencing safeguard feature and the failure of that feature.”
Akemann worked under Skydane’s video game and VR umbrella beginning back in 2016 where he oversaw projects like “Skydane’s Behemoth” and “The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners.” He left the company before the drone incident. Prior to that he was the co-founder of the video game studio Treyarch – responsible for a slew of Spider-Man games among others.
