2nd man charged with flying drone near pre-Super Bowl events
Tampa (Florida), Feb 10: A South Florida man faces up to a year in federal prison for flying a drone near the location of the Super Bowl the day before the big game, officials said.
Kevin Jonathan Canty, 33, of West Palm Beach, was charged Monday with violating national defense airspace, according to a criminal complaint. As part of the security plan for Super Bowl LV, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a temporary flight restriction Wednesday covering an area around Tampa.
That’s where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the championship game Sunday night.
According to the complaint, FBI agents saw a drone flying Saturday in downtown Tampa, several miles from the stadium, and then located Canty, the drone’s operator. Canty told agents that he is an FAA-licensed drone pilot and he was aware of the temporary flight restriction, prosecutors said.
A review of the drone’s flight path showed it had travelled near public events related to the Super Bowl. Canty is the second man charged with flying a drone in restricted Tampa airspace last week. Henry Alejandro Jimenez, 33, of Orlando, was arrested last Wednesday on the same charge.
No connection was reported between the two drone operators.
Online court records didn’t list an attorney for Canty who could comment. (AP)
Eiffel Tower needs blowtorch for ice as snow blankets Europe
Paris, Feb 10: Workers at the Eiffel Tower used a blowtorch to melt the ice collecting on its surfaces and snow was blocking roads and halting trains and school buses Wednesday across northern France.
Amid a European cold snap, areas in Normandy and Brittany unused to such icy conditions were closing highways for lack of snow-clearing equipment.
In parts of the Paris region, local authorities halted school buses and urged parents to keep their children at home. Snow blanketed the French capital and froze the Eiffel Tower.
“When negative temperatures return, my floors get partially covered with ice! To get rid of it, we need to use a blowtorch because ice-control salt is too corrosive for the metal,” tweeted the monument, which has been closed to the public for months because of coronavirus restrictions.
Parts of central and northern Europe as well as Britain have been gripped by a cold weather front since the weekend.
Heavy snowfall tangled traffic and stranded drivers in Germany and the Czech Republic. Some took advantage of the frosty climes.
Cross-country skiers glided across the Charles Bridge in Prague, children sledded in the usually snowless parks of Belgium’s capital of Brussels, and the deep winter freeze has reawakened the Dutch national obsession with skating on frozen canals. (AP)
