Chinese Citizen Arrested for Allegedly Flying Drone over and Photographing Vandenberg Space Force Base
Bay Area Resident Yinpiao Zhou, 39, Charged in Unregistered Drone Flight over Restricted Area
A Chinese citizen was arrested at San Francisco Airport on Monday on criminal charges that he illegally flew an unregistered drone above Vandenberg Space Force Base while allegedly taking video and photos of SpaceX launch facilities. His arrest was preceded by a warrant affidavit issued on Sunday, after a judge heard affirmations over the phone from an FBI agent who’d encountered Yinpiao Zhou at Vandenberg on November 30. Concern may have been heightened as the night before, a Falcon 9 had lifted off carrying a spy satellite.
According to the written affidavit, security systems for the base and the FBI detected the drone on the 30th after it flew from Ocean Park, a Lompoc city park amid the southern section of the base. The drone was tracked flying to 4,939 feet (or nearly a mile) and staying in the air for 59 minutes as it flew south over Launch Complexes Three and Four, both of which are clearly marked on Google Maps. Agents headed for the park, where they met Zhou holding the drone under his jacket.
A 39-year-old man who lives in Contra Costa County on the East Bay, Zhou holds a green card that gives him permanent resident status. He’d most recently arrived in the U.S. in February, and he was traveling with a person, whom the affidavit called “Individual-1,” who’d arrived on November 26.
Zhou told the investigators that they were on a camping trip and had stayed in Big Sur on November 28, where the park ranger at Kirk Creek told him not to fly his drone. They learned of a pending SpaceX launch after arriving at Ocean Park on the 29th. The park borders the 99,000-acre Space Force Base, which prohibits drones over and around the base.
Zhou had hacked his drone with software that allowed him to fly in restricted areas and violate the 400-foot ceiling for recreational drones. In fact, he told investigators that he’d gotten in trouble in Shanghai for flying in restricted airspace near a government building, after downloading bypass software in 2019, and received a fine. He also said he knew drones had to comply with height and location restrictions in the U.S. and that taking photos of a space contractor facility was “probably not a good idea,” the agent attested.
Zhou had taken photos of the launch, which took off about 10 minutes after midnight. Investigators found the photos on his camera in his car. The launch was for the National Reconnaissance Agency, whose satellites carry classified payloads related to intelligence and surveillance. Zhou also allowed them to look at the drone video, taken later in the morning, and obligingly deleted it when asked to do so by the investigators. His equipment and cell phone were seized, and he was apparently released after telling them he and his companion were due to return to China on December 9.
Zhou’s arrest did not occur in isolation. Drones over sensitive military sites is an increasing issue for air defense officials. Military.com reported the arrest of a graduate student from China last December for taking photos via drone of naval installations. At Langley Air Force Base, such a number of drones swept overhead that same month that they sounded like “a parade of lawn mowers,” a general told the Wall Street Journal. More than 600 incidents have occurred since 2022, a website called The Warzone reported, including “swarms” at bases overseas.
Charges against Zhou are for failure to register his drone and violation of national defense airspace. The case is being prosecuted by attorneys with the Terrorism and Export Crimes of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and by the Counterintelligence and Export Control section of the DOJ’s National Security Division. If convicted, Zhou faces a maximum of four years in federal prison.
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