Police in New York arrested a 26-year-old man Friday and charged him with reckless endangerment in connection with a drone that crashed at the US Open during an evening tennis match. Daniel Verley, a city department of education employee, was picked up early Friday and charged with reckless endangerment, reckless operation of a drone and operating a drone in a city public park outside the allowed area, police said.
The small remotely operated flying craft interrupted a second-round match between Italy's Flavia Pennetta and Romania's Monica Niculescu when it crashed in an unoccupied area of Louis Armstrong Stadium at the US National Tennis Center. No one was injured, tournament officials said. Pennetta eventually advanced 6-1, 6-4 in 79 minutes at the year's final Grand Slam tournament.
"I feared the drone was a bomb," Pennetta told www.tennisworlditalia.com. "With all the news out there, I thought it was over. My team was so scared." A similar incident took place at Wimbledon in July as some of the world's top players warmed up for the Grand Slam in south-west London. Police were alerted to a man flying a drone over the All England Club from a nearby golf course in contravention of British law, which states that it is an offense to fly a drone within 50 meters (yards) of a structure.