A man is facing three federal felony charges for illegally operating a drone during a wild-card playoff game between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers last month.
Alex Perez Suarez, a 43-year-old Baltimore resident, is accused of flying an unregistered drone above M&T Bank Stadium on Jan. 11 when the Federal Aviation Administration had imposed a temporary flight restriction over the venue.
“We are very serious about temporary flight restrictions,” said U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron in a news release. “You will be charged and held accountable for any incursion into restricted airspace, including around sports and entertainment venues such as the Super Bowl.”
According to the affidavit filed, the Federal Aviation Administration had put in place a temporary flight restriction for M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore during the NFL Wild Card game.
Federal officials considered the “unidentified and unapproved drone” to be a serious enough threat that NFL Security temporarily suspended the game. The man charged in the incident left the scene, but law enforcement officials later found him.
If convicted, Suarez faces a maximum sentence of three years in federal prison for knowingly operating an unregistered drone and for knowingly serving as an airman without an airman’s certificate. Suarez faces a maximum of one year in federal prison for willfully violating United States National Defense Airspace.
Sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.
The charges brought say the drone was not registered nor did its operator have a Remote Pilot certificate to operate it.
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