Fire officials in California are imploring amateur UAS operators to steer well clear of wildfire areas after three air tankers had to abort drops on a fire east of Los Angeles. Officials said a fixed-wing UAS with a four-foot wingspan was spotted over the Lake Fire in the San Bernardino mountains and forced a DC-10 tanker and two small aircraft to turn away. The fire is at the 11,000-foot level. Another UAS was spotted later flying 1,200 feet above the ground, three times the height allowed under hobby rules. "These folks who are handling these drones, I have to assume they have no idea what they're doing," Chon Bribiescas, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, told reporters Thursday. "They not only endangered the folks on the ground, but they endanger the pilots. It's infuriating."
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