Michael DiCiurcio has gained a cult following in Philadelphia for his videos of crazy drone flights around the city’s landmarks.
One of those followers is the Federal Aviation Administration, which filed a lawsuit last week asking a judge to slap Mr. DiCiurcio with nearly $200,000 in penalties and an order to cease the dangerous flying.
Authorities say he has flown drones to the tops of 1,100-foot buildings, harassed birds and crashed his craft, all on video. That was the evidence the FAA needed to make the case that he violated 12 federal regulations.
Repeated warnings from the FAA and the Transportation Department’s inspector general went unheeded, so authorities filed a case to force Mr. DiCiurcio to pay the penalty and clean up his act.
“At least thirty-four times, DiCiurcio flew [small unmanned aircraft systems] without a remote pilot certificate, in violation of at least a dozen regulations, and under unsafe circumstances, including lacking the ability to control the sUAS, in fog, snow, rain, wind, and darkness,” said Gregory David, the assistant U.S. attorney leading the case.
Mr. DiCiurcio has a penchant for flying his drone through Philadelphia’s urban canyons and buzzing the William Penn statue that sits nearly 600 feet high atop City Hall.
Going to court is rare, and the FAA’s proposed penalties against Mr. DiCiurcio are hefty compared with past actions, according to a study by Jonathan Rupprecht, a Florida-based lawyer. The record was a $1.9 million fine assessed in 2015 against a Chicago-based drone photography company, SkyPan, which struck a deal to pay $200,000.
The FAA filed 13 civil penalty cases against drone users in fiscal year 2023.
The prevailing sentiment in drone forums is that Mr. DiCiurcio gave the drone community a bad name and drew the FAA’s wrath with his attitude.
“This clown should not be allowed to even own a drone,” said one poster on Reddit’s drones subreddit.
Drone aficionados said the FAA seemed to be sending a message that it would enforce rules with litigation, but officials stressed in court documents that they took the case to court only after Mr. DiCiurcio rebuffed attempts to cajole him.
The case has drawn significant attention in the Philadelphia area, where many residents view Mr. DiCiurcio as a nuisance. Indeed, viewers of his YouTube channel, PhillyDroneLife, filed repeated complaints.
“Flying like a maniac,” said one. Another said he had “zero control” as he flew his drone over a city helipad. One 2022 complaint pointed out that Mr. DiCiurcio was flying in a presidential no-fly zone. The area was off-limits because President Biden was on the ground.
When the FAA contacted Mr. DiCiurcio to offer training and safety tips, he hung up the phone. In 2022, he posted a video under the title “The F—- the FAA Show Live,” in which authorities said he threatened to crash his drone into a building. In other videos, he said “the FAA is scared of me.”
Mr. DiCiurcio told WPVI-TV in Philadelphia that his videos shouldn’t be taken at face value.
“They’re videos that are edited, and as everybody knows, anything can happen in an edited video. So some of it’s real, some of it’s not, some of it is just for entertainment purposes,” he told the station.
He specifically denied being a danger.
“Hurting people with it and trying to get in the airspace, why would I do that? Why would I risk my life and people on a plane? It’s just stupid,” he said.
He pleaded poverty over the $182,004 in fines that the FAA says he owes.
“Now imagine you’re on welfare, you have nothing, and you live in your mother’s home, now what’s going to happen to you? That’s the part that everybody needs to understand. I have nothing,” Mr. DiCiurcio told WPVI.
Some in the drone community pointed out that Mr. DiCiurcio had enough money to buy numerous drones.
Amateur small drone pilots are supposed to keep their craft in line of sight at all times, keep within 400 feet of the ground and pass a safety test. They need approval to fly in restricted areas, such as near airports.
Pilots who profit from drones must obtain certification and register their craft. The FAA says Mr. DiCiurcio, in trying to monetize his videos, should have to meet those standards.
Although Mr. DiCiurcio faces a civil case, some drone pilots have been charged criminally for their flight behavior.
In November, a 62-year-old California man was sentenced to 120 hours of community service and a year of probation after flying his drone near manned aircraft on three occasions in his quest for breathtaking videos.
“I was taken away by the quality and beauty, and I never stepped back and considered that they could be harmful, or scary or dangerous to other who were near the drones,” Alexander Milinovic wrote in a letter to the judge.
Earlier this month, federal authorities charged a Pennsylvania man with operating a drone illegally. They said the drone operator buzzed M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore during a National Football League conference championship game in January. Officials deemed the drone enough of a threat that they temporarily halted the game.
State police troopers tracked the drone back to its landing site, and they and FBI agents swooped in to arrest Matthew Hebert.
Investigators said Mr. Hebert told them he was relying on his drone’s automatic system, which he said usually prevents him from flying into restricted space. He said his DJI drone didn’t alert him, so he figured the area was safe.
In Mr. DiCiurcio’s case, his YouTube channel watchers say he also uses a DJI drone that issues warnings but regularly ignores them.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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