An FBI-led counter-drone task force used electronic countermeasures to force civilian drones out of the sky over the Spokane wildfires, after its detection gear logged 41 unauthorized aircraft inside the flight restriction in four days. The unit was assembled to protect FIFA World Cup matches in Seattle earlier this summer. It moved to Spokane County in early August when hobby pilots kept grounding helicopters and air tankers over three uncontained fires that destroyed at least 700 structures.
No pilot has been arrested. Deputies tracked operators down, cited them, and referred the cases to the Federal Aviation Administration, where Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels says each one carries up to $100,000 in fines. The authority to take the drones down is itself new: Senator Maria Cantwell said she helped secure federal approval for the task force to bring unauthorized drones down over the fires.
FBI Detection Gear Logged 41 Drones in Four Days
The FBI Counter UAS Task Force detected 26 unauthorized drones inside the Spokane flight restriction on August 2 and 13 more on August 3, reaching 41 detections in four days by August 5. At least one incursion forced aerial firefighting to stop completely while the fires burned uncontained below.
Those figures come from the Washington State Patrol’s August 5 release and a briefing by the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. The task force draws officers from the King County Sheriff’s Office, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, the Seattle Police Department, the Spokane Valley Police Department, and the Washington State Patrol, and it ran drone detection around the clock inside the FAA’s temporary flight restriction, published on the agency’s TFR map, which covered the fire area up to 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) and ran 24 hours a day, in force through August 14…