Firefighting aircraft hits drone - or does it?

The media is awash with reports that a fire-fighting water tanker aircraft struck a drone whilst putting out the flames of the wildfires in LA County however, at the time this video was made, there has not been a single shred of evidence presented to back up that claim -- other than a hole in a wing.

This may well have been a drone but until the evidence is supplied, nobody should jump to conclusions.

And where was Remote ID? Why are authorities ignoring RID and instead using DJI's Aeroscope, a tool that has been around for many years and seems to make RID a waste of time and money -- an unreasonable tax on the hobby of flying RC models.

Have your say in the comments and rest assured, if this does turn out to be a drone incident I'll be first in line to condemn whoever was stupid enough to operate their drone in a TFR.

Thanks to my supporters over on Patreon who make it possible for me to produce videos like this that nobody else dares to:

Also thanks to channel members, for the very same reason:

[jeffparisse]

Everything is a drone if an airplane hits it.

[pmpwiz]

FBI apparently has parts of the drone. Tentatively identified as a DJI Mini 3 drone.

[ceptimus]

Looking at the big hole in the centre of the damaged area, it looks like some parts of the impacting object might have ended up inside the wing. If it was a drone, the remains of the battery might be inside?

[darwintea]

We haven't heard a word about those "east coast drones" for weeks

[Stormin]

A bird strike usually leaves evidence of bird remains. Clean damage like what was shown would indicate a drone strike, or some other inorganic object.

[HikeingiTuP]

probably an official drone surveying the fires by the authorities

[dylanmiller]

As a pilot and drone enthusiast I can almost guarantee you a bird doesn’t cause such damage to an aircraft of this size

[gaelwolf]

Definitely not a bird . . .no feathers, no blood. Bird far more likely to leave a smeared dent at most.

[crystalclearwindowcleaning]

You are a rare voice of sanity in a sea of idiocy. Thank you for making the obvious clear.

[prussiaaero]

It sure looks like whatever hit it will be inside the wing. Or was it hit by the refuel truck on the ramp?

[FPVwineUK]

This is like people trying to make everywhere 20mph in a car because some one drove at 90mpb on a highway... Great video!

[johnfry]

The Govt. has decided it does not want citizens to own drones .

[bunnykiller]

and the irony of it maybe it was a drone the fire fighters were using to check on the situation on ground

[daemn]

While I get very annoyed when drones are blamed for everything in the sky, the most likely explanation based on what we can see is the impact of one arm and motor of a drone with the wing, and I'm sure that with a closeup look it'll be pretty obvious (will likely see metal/carbon on metal scratches in the paint) and maybe some debris inside the wing's D box. If it were a bird there'd be bird guts all over the wing (same as when they splat off the front of your car), and if it were a stick carried up in a fire tornado you'd likely see signs of soot, sap, bark and remains of it inside the wing.

The only thing stopping *more* people (including news agencies) from getting drones up during the fires to satisfy their curiosity was the 40+mph winds. As soon as the winds died down, that meant the fire fighting aircraft could start working, but I'll bet a *lot* of people immediately went out to fly their camera drones too, and most are just sitting on that footage now since this incident made the news. Consider the dozens (hundreds?) of videos of people driving their cars, motorcycles and ebikes up into the fire zones over the last couple days.

On a side note. Some years ago there was a big story about drones preventing firefighting planes from flying over near Cajon Pass, again in 40+mph Santa Ana winds in SoCal. It didn't make any sense to me as the story reported multiple drones, and consumer drones would have all immediately been blown away. I had my suspicions which were later confirmed via back channels in a different community. It was a group of slope soaring pilots flying their PSS warbird sailplanes on the hill a couple miles west of Cajon Pass. They were all flying well before the fire started on the freeway, and weren't too worried about it, until some official drove out from the top of the pass to their location and immediately started *screaming* bloody murder at them to get their "drones" out of the sky. They informed that person that they would be happy to do so but it would take a few minutes to get their handbuilt one of a kind sailplanes down safely (you have to walk to a different location to land there, and it takes skill and patience to get 90-100oz sailplanes that can go 100+mph down safely).. The official took this as a "refusal to land" and continued to scream at them, and their perspective is what made the news. Nothing really came of it after that, but of course the news story about "drone pilots refusing to land" stuck..
But here's the interesting bit. Later that day we got to see footage from a news helicopter high overhead showing that big DC-10 fire bomber come in low over the hills to drop retardant on the fire. Turns out their approach path was *exactly* over where the slope soaring pilots were and judging by the shadow jumping up to meet the plane, it couldn't have cleared the ridge by more than 100-200ft. So yes, they needed to not be flying there, but it could have been handled better.

[yummybeers]

Wrong. I was assured by the drone scolds on Reddit that it was a drone. And if anyone knows about death and destruction from drones, it’s the Reddit drone scolds.

[PiDsPagePrototypes]

Evidence based reporting needs to be brought back.

[the-tribe]

Good thing we have RemoteID...

(please note the implied sarcasm)

[bazza]

Back to the drawingboard, mate, they found the drone wreckage inside the hole.

[TheBenLambert]

It's easier for the pilot to say it was a drone rather than a mistake.

[bashkillszombies]

I was suspicious when the media started with drone alarmism.