X-jets got a point
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if a drone was responsible. Of course I’m as irked with all the drone-shaming as anyone but 1) Americans are mostly self-serving dolts who think rules and guidelines don’t apply to them (I’m American and live amongst some of the dumbest of the dumb so I can say that with impunity lol) - I can totally envision some idiot thinking to hell with the rules, I’m going to get drone footage of the fire where aircraft are flying trying to fight the fire and YOU CAN’T STOP ME. Sadly that’s the American mentality. 2) I’m not sure what X-jets is smoking but nobody is going huntin through the scorched earth to try to recover evidence of a drone that has likely been incinerated by the fire 
What else could it have hit ?
No sign of blood etc. so not a bird, even if a bird would be flying over a fire in the first place !
If I remember the 1989 film ‘Always’ correctly, exploding trees was a bit of a problem…
That said, the number of clips I’ve seen in the past two days from people rushing out to film these planes for their TikToks I have zero doubt at least one moron thought it would be click-worthy to park a drone in front of them.
Fire debris. It can get blown upwards in the up drafts due to heat. So could be chuncks of wood.
But as Bruce says too many people assuming before any evidence was shown. No idea where he got that picture from though.
I would question a DJI mini causing that damage. 
This is 2 days old but just popped up,
I’m guessing that the remains of the drone were found inside the aircraft’s wing, having punctured the skin in the collision.
As the drone is a DJI Mini 3, that should mean that DJI will be
able to supply the feds with the identity of the person who originally bought and activated it even if the serial numbers have been removed; have I got that right? It is of course possible that it’s been sold on and the original owner wouldn’t necessarily know the details of the person who owns or flies it now, but it would be a start point for their investigation (not that I’m telling the feds how to do investigations!).
It will be interesting to see firstly, if DJI do provide this information to the FBI, secondly, if it is reported by the media, and thirdly if this action makes any differerence to the proposed ban. Some of the ban’s supporters may be convinced that information held by/data fed to DJI is not necessarily a threat to US national security and can in fact be a great help in situations like this!
I rather hope the pilot is brought to book in this way and ‘named & shamed’ as an example to anyone foolish enough to think that flying a drone in such circumstances is in any way a good idea. It would be a win-win if it also helps DJI’s image in certain corridors of US power… Bloke’s a dick.
I would absolutely hate to think that anyone has lost their property (or worse) as a result of this incident, which has apparently grounded one of the only two 'Super Scooper specialist
aircraft avaialble to fight the fires. Of course there are still plenty of other ‘water bombers’ in use, but being able to collect water without landing from some local supply and get back to dropping it in what would probably only be a few minuts is much more efficient in terms of getting water or retardant on to the fire.
It’s not a mini 3, check the DroneXL article with the clearer photo posted above
Apologies, quoting from the allegation in Kirky’s posted video 5h ago.
Its a Mini 3 pro to split hairs but Johnster is correct enough.
Never heard of proton mail ?
Just googled it. Don’t see what difference secure mail would make to DJI drone activation/registration/binding data that the company could make available to the FBI.
Mickey Mouse
Donald duck.
Man Pleads Guilty
