A Seattle man has been sentenced to 30 days in jail after his drone crashed and injured two people.

Paul M. Skinner, 38, was operating the drone during the 2015 Seattle Pride Parade when he lost control of the device. He was subsequently charged by police with reckless endangerment after his 18-inch-by-18-inch drone collided into a building before falling into a crowd and knocking one woman unconscious.

Seattle Municipal Court Judge Willie Gregory said that while he accepted that Skinner had no intent to injure people and that it was clearly an accident, a custodial sentence was required nonetheless given that Skinner had “engaged in conduct that put people in danger of being injured, which is what happened.”

Prosecution attorney Pete Holmes had asked the court for a longer jail sentence, arguing that what Skinner had done was “a serious public safety issue that will only get worse.” He also noted that jail time was required so that “operators … know that we will continue to go after them when they disregard public safety.”

According to The Verge, this may be the first time the punishment for a pilot included jail time. Arthur Holland Michael, co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone, said that he had never heard of anyone receiving jail time before.

Skinner’s attorney Jeffrey Kradel told the Seattle Times that he believed that the sentence was “too severe” for an act that wasn’t intentional and that singling out his client for harsh treatment to scare other drone users is “an improper use of prosecutorial authority.”

The case and custodial sentence brings attention to the potential legal problems when a drone crashes, particularly given that it has been proven that drones can be hijacked in flight by third parties.

Skinner remains free on bail pending the outcome of an appeal to the sentence.

Photo: billmorrow/Flickr