A tourist pleaded guilty to a federal charge for a 12-minute drone flight near Kennedy Space Center. His controller only warned him about an airport.

The detail that matters for every pilot is what the controller said. Per the affidavit as DroneXL reports it, the screen showed the same message at every launch that day: "Aircraft in Warning Zone (Airport). Fly with caution." That was the entire intervention. DJI replaced its U.S. geofencing with advisories in January 2025, and an airport caution is not a warning that the asphalt under the drone is charted restricted airspace with a federal statute attached. The airspace is also only the first layer. The National Park Service bars launching, landing, or operating an unmanned aircraft anywhere in Canaveral National Seashore under 36 CFR 1.5. The park's own laws page says the seashore borders one of the nation's biggest launch areas and that a drone there may be viewed as a threat to national security. It adds that unmanned aircraft can be detected remotely from Kennedy Space Center.

Two earlier cases bracket the sentencing, which is pending. DroneXL recounts both. Xiao Guang Pan, a Chinese-born Canadian, flew a Mavic 3 Pro near Cape Canaveral Space Force Station over three days in January 2025. He received 12 months of probation followed by deportation and a bar on re-entry. Yinpiao Zhou flew over Vandenberg Space Force Base during a launch in November 2024 after installing software to defeat his drone's limits. He was sentenced to four months already served, one year of supervised release, and $225 in fines. The defense in He's case intends to argue for time served; he has surrendered his passport and remains on pretrial supervision. The statute has also changed since those cases. Public Law 119-60, enacted December 18, 2025, amended 49 U.S.C. 46307 so that a second or subsequent offense carries imprisonment of up to five years rather than one. First offenses are untouched, which is why this plea still tops out at a year.