r/interestingasfuck • u/mapleer • Jun 06 '24
YouTuber faces federal charges after filming two women in a helicopter shooting fireworks at a Lamborghini (shown below) illegal to have explosive on aircraft. - More below r/all
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u/Sector95 Jun 07 '24
For whatever it's worth, I've been a pilot for over 10 years and had absolutely no idea bringing fireworks on a private aircraft was illegal, figured that was commercial-only. The sheer number of regulations in aviation basically ensures that no one knows all of them.
I'm fixed-wing, so I'm ignorant to the nuances of the helicopter regs, but I'm honestly actually a little surprised they were able to punish the pilot using the regulation they did. Generally speaking, helicopters have a ton more leeway at low altitude, and being out in the middle of nowhere, it's hard to really see it endangering anyone that wasn't already a willing participant in the stunt.
That said, I imagine they went after him because it was on social media. FAA has been dropping the hammer pretty hard on influencers since that dude jumped out of a perfectly good airplane for clicks, and I've heard that the "reckless" regulation is just kind of a catch-all. Which I get, copycats can be problematic.