As a rocket carrying a national reconnaissance satellite lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base last November, a Chinese national flew a drone from Lompoc’s Ocean Beach and took photographs of the midnight launch. Flying a drone over the base is illegal for national defense reasons, and on March 10, Yinpiao Zhou pleaded guilty to one charge of violating national defense airspace.
The 34-year-old Contra Costa County resident has been held in custody since December 9, when he was arrested at San Francisco Airport. Immediately after the launch on November 30, base security agents had met Zhou at the park after he had flown his drone to the south about 1.8 miles, taking photos of the base. He knew that was unlawful and had loaded software on his drone to bypass standard restrictions. The security agents took his camera equipment and had him delete his drone footage. He told the agents that he had plans to return to China on December 9.
Initially, Zhou pleaded not guilty in January to two charges: failure to register an aircraft and the airspace violation. In a plea deal in March, the first charge was dropped, and Zhou pleaded to the second as a misdemeanor, said Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice Los Angeles office.
The plea agreement states Zhou could be deported as the result of the conviction, denied citizenship, and denied admission into the United States in the future. He faces a maximum sentence of year in jail, a year of supervised release, and a fine of $100,000 at his sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for April 7.
