Photo of charred evidence
MOUNTAIN VIEW– The Mountain View Police Department is asking for the public’s help in locating a suspect who was last seen fleeing the area after crashing their drone into a power line on June 8, causing a power outage for more than 1,600 homes in the downtown area of Mountain View.
A witness to the outage described to police a white-haired man who fled the scene driving a white hatchback vehicle.
According to the Mountain View Police, “Around 8:15 pm, officers were called out to the 200 block of Polaris Avenue for reports of a power outage affecting roughly 1,600 PG&E customers.”
Police stated, “The resulting power outage lasted until shortly after 11 pm, and impacted areas including City Hall and the city library, the latter of which had to be evacuated out of an abundance of caution.” The damage caused by the drone crashing into the power line caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage to the transformer as well as costs towards repair work on the power line.
According to the MVPD, “FAA regulations state that you cannot fly a drone within a five-mile radius of an airport without proper notification, which includes areas such as Moffett Field.” The rules of flying a drone state that you should not fly a drone near people. Also, you should keep the drone clear of any surrounding obstacles.
Anyone with information on the case can call the anonymous tip line at 650-386-8063.
