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Tourist Fined For Yellowstone Drone Crash

National Park Service

A federal court has ordered a Dutch man to pay more than $3,000 dollars for crashing a drone in the biggest hot spring in Yellowstone National Park.

Theodorus Van Vliet crashed a drone into the Grand Prismatic Spring in early August. Workers have been unable to recover the unmanned aircraft so far.

Park authorities banned drones in late June.

Van Vliet was one of three visitors to crash one in the park this summer.

This is the second federal conviction for piloting drones in Yellowstone in a just over a week. One other illegal drone case is still pending.

Park spokesman Al Nash believes these federal convictions will make visitors think twice before using drones in the future. “We’ve purposely brought attention to these three circumstances because we want visitors to understand that, while, the use of unmanned aircraft may be appropriate in some places as a recreational activity, it is prohibited in Yellowstone and other national parks."

Last week, a German man was banned from Yellowstone for a year, fined $1,600 dollars and placed on unsupervised probation. He crashed a drone into Yellowstone Lake in July.

An Oregon man has also been charged with violating the ban. His case goes to federal court in October.

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