Letters | 4-17-14

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Drone buzzing campers deplorable

The last few winters we camped at the Kiholo Bay state campground and found it very pleasant. But, during our last visit to Kiholo we were disturbed by one thing.

We had set up our camp as usual and were enjoying the view of whales breaching in the distance when an obnoxious buzzing noise came quickly down the beach path. One of those nasty little drones was flown directly into our campsite not more than 15 feet above our picnic table. We could clearly see a camera attached to the bottom of this hovering little monstrosity, which the owner must have been using to spy on campers and to remotely control the thing. I understand that these insidious devices can be controlled with a smartphone app from up to 6,000 feet away. This explains why we could not tell where the thing ended up landing after it flew back up the path pausing at each campsite.

The next morning several other campers inquired of us if we knew who owned that spy device so we were not the only ones offended by it.

These spy drones can be dangerous — one recently hit a contestant in the head while filming a ski race here in Alaska.

I know the Hawaii Legislature has been debating various options for regulating drones. I hope that in the mean time Hawaii would ban them from use in state campgrounds.

Will and Linda Forsberg

Healy, Alaska