Two Manhattan men were arrested and arraigned on felony reckless endangerment charges early Monday after they piloted a drone that almost struck an NYPD helicopter flying over the George Washington Bridge, police said on Tuesday, forcing the police chopper to steer off course in order to avoid a crash.
Wilkins Mendoza, 34, and Remy Castro, 23, were remotely piloting a DGI Phantom 2 drone as it flew near the Hudson River crossing, at about 800 feet in the air, after midnight on Monday, said Detective Annette Markowski. As the unmanned aircraft circled the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge over the Harlem River around 12:20 a.m., NYPD pilots operating an Aviation Unit helicopter spotted the drone and started observing the "flying object[s] at 2,000 feet in vicinity of the George Washington Bridge," New York Daily News reported.
At one point, the drone was "circling and heading toward an NYPD helicopter, which forced the officers to change course to avoid collision," Markowski said. The helicopter crew, operated by two police officers on routine patrol, followed the drone and watched it touch down at Fairview Ave. and Fort George Hill in Inwood.
Mendoza and Castro, both of Inwood, were arrested at the landing zone at 12:34 a.m., were police also recovered a second drone, according to UPI. The drones, which reportedly cost as much as $1,400, were confiscated. Both men were arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on a single felony count of Class D reckless endangerment, a charge stemming from the pilot's complaint of feeling endangered by the drone.
Meanwhile, a prosecutor told the judge that police reported the drone as having flown 2,000 feet in the air, but a defense attorney argued that the model used can only fly at heights of 300 feet. "This vehicle can't go above 300 feet," said Castro and Wilkins' attorney, Michael Kushner. "They did nothing more than fly a kite."
The men were requested by the prosecutor to be released without bail, and a judge agreed. "It's just a toy," Castro reportedly said during his arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court. "The copter came to us."
