FAA investigating drone flying near news helicopters

Monday evening, as Chopper 7 covered a fire in a Spanaway salvage yard, KIRO-TV Chief Photographer Scott Crueger turned the camera toward another helicopter taking video for KOMO-TV and KING-TV.

A drone was flying above it.

“We got a drone out here somewhere,” Crueger alerted colleagues in the newsroom.

He guessed the drone was flying at about 1,500 feet.

It isn’t easy following something so small with a helicopter camera, but Crueger kept on it.

He followed the drone as it descended, and spotted a man on the ground operating it.

“I was thinking, ‘How could you be that stupid?’” Crueger said later.

If helicopters strike anything, like birds, they can easily fall out of the sky

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