Thursday night power outage the result of a drone crash

Last night around 8:15 pm, officers were called out to the 200 block of Polaris Avenue for reports of a power outage affecting roughly 1,600 PG&E customers. When our officers arrived on scene, we were told by witnesses that a white adult man with white hair had been flying a drone in the area – which is not permitted – and the drone subsequently crashed into a high-voltage wire. The resulting power outage lasted until shortly after 11 pm, and impacted areas including City Hall and the city library, the latter of which had to be evacuated out of an abundance of caution. The damage of the drone crash totaled tens of thousands of dollars, and the repair work was completed early Friday morning.



We are asking the public’s help to identify the man that was seen flying the drone, who witnesses say drove away from the scene in a white hatchback before we arrived. Please be aware, FAA regulations state that you cannot fly a drone within a five-mile radius of an airport without proper notification, which includes areas such as Moffett Field. You also cannot fly a drone near people and any drone that is flown must remain clear of surrounding obstacles, per the FAA.

The investigation into this case is ongoing at this time. We will update you when we have more information.

Anyone with information on the case can call our anonymous tip line at 650-386-8063.