A New York City teacher and photographer has been ordered to serve five days of community service after he crashed a drone into the stands at the US Open last month.

In a statement released Friday, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown described the defendant, Daniel Verley, as having "cooperated fully with the police."

Brown added that Verley, who has no prior criminal record, "never intended to allow his drone to fly into the stadium and that he, in fact, lost control of the drone. Fortunately, no one was injured as a result of this incident."

"However, we cannot rely on happenstance to protect the public," Brown added. "I urge hobbyists and other members of the public to use common sense when choosing to employ these unmanned vehicles—obtain the necessary permissions and only use these vehicles in areas deemed safe as the reckless use of unmanned model aircraft near locations where large groups of people assemble needlessly puts the lives and safety of people at risk."

The drone flew over the tennis stadium in Queens just before 8:30pm Eastern Time on September 3 during a sparsely attended match between Monica Niculescu of Romania and eventual Women's Singles Champion Flavia Pennetta of Italy. The pilot seemingly lost control, and the drone went down into an empty section of the stands—there were no injuries. Varley was located nearby and arrested within hours of the incident.

The incident is hardly the only case of amateur drone pilots flying near public sporting events. In response to such situations, the San Francisco 49ers and the Federal Aviation Administration released this 30 second safety video last month to potential drone pilots: