Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 1, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba Expedited Delivery on In-Stock Items dlanoDcM dlanoR House Charities ® Free In-Home Design Assistance 204-783-8500 1425 Ellice Avenue Monday to Friday 10AM – 6PM Saturday 10AM – 6PM Sunday 11AM – 5PM www.la-z-boy.com/winnipeg Super Weekend Sale LIMITED TIME ONLY! ENDS FEBRUARY 3 RD SAVE 20 % OFF* STOREWIDE Come in and find your new favourite lazy spot. *Some exceptions apply, see store for details WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● A13 NEWS I CANADA / WORLD SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2025 Man pleads guilty for damaging Quebec Super Scooper with drone LOS ANGELES — The pilot of a drone that crashed into a firefighting plane, leaving a gaping hole and grounding the aircraft during the deadly Palisades Fire in Los Angeles, has agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanour count of un- safely operating a drone, federal authorities said Friday. Peter Tripp Akemann will avoid prison with the plea agreement that states he will have to complete 150 hours of wildfire-related community service and pay US$65,000 in restitution for the damage to the plane, said acting U.S. attorney Joseph McNally. The misdemeanour count Akemann faced could have resulted in a year in prison. He appeared in court Friday and will remain out of jail under court supervision during his case. Authorities say Akemann launched the drone from the top of a parking structure in Santa Monica on Jan. 9 and flew it more than 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometres) toward the Palisades Fire before losing sight of it. It then crashed with the Super Scooper that was carrying two firefighters. The planes can scoop 1,500 gallons (6,000 litres) of water in just seconds. The wind-driven blaze in the upscale Pacific Palisades began Jan. 7, destroying or damaging nearly 8,000 homes, businesses and other structures and killing at least 12 people. Drone operations were prohibited in the area at the time due to the firefight. The conflagration was fuelled by dry Santa Ana winds and has scorched at least 36 square miles (94 square kilometres) of land. It was 98 per cent con- tained as of Friday. In a statement handed out to press, defence attorney Glen Jonas said Akemann was “deeply sorry for the mistake he made” and “accepts responsibility for his grave error in judgment.” Federal authorities emphasized Friday it was the responsibility of drone owners to know the rules and there would be consequences for breaking them, especially as Los Angeles gears up to host several major events in com- ing years, including the World Cup, the Super Bowl and the Olympics. “The FAA has very strict guidelines about registering drones and where drones can be flown. The onus is on the pilot, if firefighters are putting out a fire with aircraft that should be a clue,” said Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. The Super Scooper, which was owned by the govern- ment of Quebec, was grounded for several days. The pilot was able to land the aircraft despite a hole in the left wing caused by the collision with the drone. Davis said there was no evidence Akemann intentionally caused the collision. “Lack of common sense and ignorance of your duty as a drone pilot will not shield you from criminal charges,” he said. The fire in the hilly Los Angeles neighbourhood, home to Hollywood stars like Jamie Lee Curtis and Billy Crystal who lost houses in the fire, forced thousands of people from their homes, and knocked out power to tens of thousands. Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the fire. Officials have placed the origin of the blaze be- hind a home on Piedra Morada Drive, which sits above a densely wooded arroyo. Another wind-whipped fire that started the same day in Altadena, a community about 35 miles (56 kilometres) east of Pacific Palisades, killed at least 17 people and destroyed or damaged more than 10,000 homes and other buildings. The Santa Ana winds have turned seasonal wildfires into infernos that have levelled neighbourhoods in and around Los Angeles, where there has been no significant rainfall in more than eight months. Several Altadena residents who lost homes in the Eaton Fire told the AP they received no notifications about their neighbourhoods. For others, the first warning was an ur- gent text message in the middle of the night. On Tuesday, Los Angeles County officials approved an outside review of how alerts functioned in the Eaton Fire and Palisades Fire in response to residents’ demands. City officials declined to answer The Associated Press’ ques- tions about a lag in some Palisades Fire alerts, though Fire Capt. Branden Silverman said responding to a fire and de- termining evacuation needs can take some time. — The Associated Press JAIMIE DING AND OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Pilots have reported repeated close calls near D.C. airport W ASHINGTON — Airline pilots flying into Washington, D.C., have reported nearly a dozen near misses that were scarily similar to this week’s mid-air collision that killed 67 people — the type of close calls that led one aviator to complain that Rea- gan National Airport was “probably the most dangerous” in the nation. An Associated Press review of a fed- eral database that catalogues such con- cerns found scores of reports over the last two decades of near-misses and warnings about congested skies over the nation’s capital, with pilots repeatedly complaining about military helicopters getting too close to passenger jets. Last May, one of those helicopters passed just 300 feet (91 metres) below a commercial airliner, triggering a cockpit collision avoidance alert and prompting the jet’s pilot to file a report in the Avi- ation Safety Reporting System, a database maintained by NASA that allows pilots and crew to submit voluntary, anonymous and confidential safety concerns. “I never saw it,” the jetliner pilot wrote, adding that he “never received a warning” about the helicopter from air traffic controllers. Such complaints highlighted the tension that has developed between commercial airline pilots unnerved by the helicopters and the military units that have critical national security duties and must main- tain flying skills to execute them. It is not clear if federal authorities were aware of such concerns or took any steps to mitigate the risks. But on Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration paused almost all helicopter flights from operating near the airport, with excep- tions for police and emergency response. The president’s helicopter transport, Marine One, is also exempt. The pause came after an Army Black Hawk helicopter on a nighttime train- ing run collided with an American Airlines jet that was about to land at the airport Wednesday night, plunging both into the dark, cold Potomac River. No one survived. Investigators are examining whether the helicopter was flying higher than its allowed limit and whether control tow- er staffing was an issue. A preliminary FAA report noted that one controller was performing duties typically handled by two people at certain times of the day. In the week before the crash, at least two planes had to abort landings be- cause helicopters got too close. More than a half dozen military, fed- eral and local agencies operate helicop- ters in the airspace near Ronald Rea- gan Washington National Airport and they need those same air routes to train for and execute their missions, current and former army pilots said. Wednesday’s crash — and the reports in the federal database — highlighted the unique challenges of flying into Reagan National Airport. It has been described by some as a postage stamp of an airport, with water on three sides and constant congestion along the busy Potomac River corridor. — The Associated Press TARA COPP, MICHAEL R. SISAK AND AARON KESSLER JOSE LUIS MAGANA / AP PHOTO A plane prepares to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, seen through a makeshift memorial in Arlington, Va., for the victims of the Wednesday night plane crash. NICK UT / AP PHOTO FILES A Canadian amphibious firefighting aircraft, like the one above, was grounded for several days with a hole in the left wing. ;