Drone flight near Washington Monument leads to citation

By Meg Garner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A man has been cited for flying a drone near the Washington Monument, police said on Friday, a flight that occurred in one of the country’s most heavily restricted air zones.

The man, John Newcomer Jr., was flying the unmanned aircraft around the north side of the obelisk at 4 a.m. on Wednesday when officers ordered him to land it, the U.S. Park Police said in a statement.

Officers issued Newcomer a citation and confiscated the UDI R/C drone and its control mechanism. The statement did not say where Newcomer was from or his age.

The drone incident near the Washington Monument, one of the U.S. capital’s landmarks, was the first in a national park in the Washington area this year, and the 28th since 2013, the statement said.

U.S. law bars unmanned aircraft in a restricted zone around Washington.

(Reporting by Meg Garner; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)