A Chinese national living in Los Angeles allegedly flew a drone and took aerial photos of it Vandenberg Space Force Base Last month, federal prosecutors said Monday.
The Justice Department said Yinbiao Zhou, 39, was arrested this week at San Francisco International Airport before boarding a flight to China. He is accused of failing to register an aircraft that does not provide transportation and violating national defense airspace.
On November 30, drone detection systems at the military facility in Santa Barbara County detected a drone flying over the base, prosecutors said.
Officials revealed the new U.S. Space Force name for Vandenberg during the base renaming and 30th Space Wing redesign ceremony on May 14, at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. ((US Space Force photo by Michael Peterson)
The drone took off from Ocean Park, a public area next to the base, and flew for about an hour. Authorities said that during its flight, the plane flew about one mile above ground level.
Security personnel from the base went to a park and spoke with Cho and someone with him.
Prosecutors said Cho had a drone flying over the base hidden in his jacket.
AV8 self-driving drone. (CFU)
The drone was later searched and investigators found that several photos of the base were taken from above, authorities said. A search of Zhou's cellphone showed that he had conducted a Google search one month earlier for the phrase “Vandenberg Space Force Base drone rules” and had sent messages to another person about hacking his drone to allow it to fly higher than it could.
Chu is a permanent resident and recently returned From China In February. The person who was with him in Ocean Park entered the United States from China on November 26.
Cho faces up to four years in prison.
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Vandenberg's host unit, Space Launch Delta 30, supports West Coast launch activities of the Air Force, Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Fox News Digital has contacted the military base.
