Well, I kept thinking about this after seeing a couple of anti-authority posts elsewhere asking questions along the lines of what is so illegal about it anyway?
So then I was wondering to myself, what would the charges be?
14 CFR 91.15 about dropping objects doesn't seem like the right thing, as they were firing, not dropping, but I don't know of a specific statute against shooting from an aircraft. However, there are statues against shooting at people in general, though I am not sure how shooting a firework plays out in relation to those statutes, since depending on the actual firework, it can be unlikely that harm would occur. (Though it seems like anything to the eye would always be a problem...)
The link in the original post says it was for placing an incendiary device in an aircraft, which turns out to be the actual charge. Which makes sense, seems to be part of shipping regs, which I am familiar with because we have to recertify annually at work for hazmat carriage. But I realized that although I am familiar with the rules we work under at a conceptual level, I don't actually know where those statutes live. Turns out they live in multiple areas, but are centered in 49 CFR, so no wonder I didn't have a direct familiarity with the statute.
Anyway, here is the criminal complaint:
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24736626/choi-complaint.pdf
And here is an article about the investigation, including the pilot, a cooperating witness who has already had his license revoked:
https://lawandcrime.com/crime/bro-i...t-speeding-lamborghini-in-social-media-stunt/
The pilot certificate was revoked based on violations of 91.13 (careless and reckless) and 91.119 (minimum safe altitudes). The youtuber is charged with placing the fireworks on a helicopter, but also appears to have some other related charges brewing due to buying the fireworks in Nevada, where they are legal, and transporting them across state lines to use them in California, where both the actual fireworks are illegal and the use of them on the aircraft violated federal statute.
What a mess.
We need somebody to write a new song: "It's a clickbait life."
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