Pardon the pun, but a drone-related story that flew somewhat under the radar back in October has resurfaced and adds another to the pile of cautionary tales regarding U.S. vulnerability to aerial espionage. Here's the hook:

“A Chinese student's drone got stuck in a tree near Newport News Shipbuilding in January. On it, FBI agents found photos of BAE Systems Ship Repair and General Dynamics' National Steel & Shipbuilding Co., as well as of the Newport News shipyard.”https://t.co/o04lFPcPPR

— Jerry Dunleavy IV 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) December 28, 2024

It rather seems like dumb luck, but indeed, a mishap with the drone back in January led to the prosecution and sentencing of a Chinese student at the University of Minnesota for violating the Espionage Act. In October, Fengyun Shi was sentenced to six months in federal prison after authorities found images of navy ships under construction on his wayward drone.

Shi entered the picture Jan. 6 when people in Newport News noticed him trying to free a drone that was stuck in a tree. They called police and he was questioned by officers who ultimately suggested Shi ask the fire department to retrieve his drone. Instead, he immediately returned his rented car, took a train to Washington, D.C., and flew to Oakland, California. The drone fell out of the tree on its own, and police found aerial pictures of a shipyard owned by Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), which builds nuclear submarines and Ford Class aircraft carriers.

Shi was subsequently arrested in San Francisco just as he was attempting to board a plane with a one-way ticket to China. 

Here's more detail on how the treebound drone led to Shi's arrest and prosecution:

During a rainy morning on Jan. 6, Fengyun Shi parked a rented Tesla near 65th Street and Huntington Avenue in Newport News, Va., 11 miles from the Langley base. The car was outside a shipyard run by HII, the company that builds nuclear submarines and the Navy’s newest generation of the Ford Class aircraft carrier.

Shi, a student at the University of Minnesota, told nearby residents around midmorning that he was flying a drone that got stuck in a tree. As he tried to free it using his controller a neighbor called Newport News, Va., police. Officers asked Shi why he was flying it in such foul weather, and they told him to call the fire department for help.

Shi instead returned his rental car an hour later and took an Amtrak train to Washington, D.C. The following day, he flew to Oakland, Calif. By chance, the drone fell to the ground that same day and ended up with federal investigators. FBI agents found that Shi had photographed Navy vessels in dry dock, including shots taken around midnight. Some were under construction at the nearby shipyard.

On Jan. 18, federal agents arrested Shi as he was about to board a flight to China on a one-way ticket. Shi told FBI agents he was a ship enthusiast and hadn’t realized his drone crossed into restricted airspace. Investigators weren’t convinced but found no evidence linking him to the Chinese government. They learned he had bought the drone on sale at a Costco in San Francisco the day before he traveled to Norfolk.

U.S. prosecutors charged Shi with unlawfully taking photos of classified naval installations, the first case involving a drone under a provision of U.S. espionage law. The 26-year-old Chinese national pleaded guilty and appeared in federal court in Norfolk on Oct. 2 for sentencing.

Magistrate Judge Lawrence Leonard said he didn’t believe Shi’s story—that he had been on vacation and was flying drones in the middle of the night for fun. “There’s significant holes,” the judge said in court.

“If he was a foreign agent, he would be the worst spy ever known,” said Shi’s attorney, Shaoming Cheng.

Perhaps Cheng has a point. Still, Judge Leonard's observations regarding the "significant holes" in Shi's story seem a bit of an understatement. 

The incident involving Shi followed shortly after a spate of drone sightings over sensitive U.S. facilities.

Drone Swarms Over Sensitive US Bases and Nuclear Facilities Is Met by Apathy and Indifference

However, it appears authorities have yet to determine whether there's any connection between Shi's misadventures and those incursions. 

And the resurfaced story regarding Shi's arrest and prosecution comes on the heels of a similar incident in mid-December involving Vandenburg Space Force Base.

Meanwhile in CA: FBI Arrests Chinese National for Flying Drone Over Vandenberg Space Force Base

In at least one instance in California, however, law enforcement identified an individual behind a drone flown over a military installation and made an arrest. On Wednesday, the FBI's Los Angeles office announced that it had arrested a Northern California man and charged him with "failure to register an aircraft not providing transportation and violation of national defense airspace."

Yinpiao Zhou, 39, of Brentwood, CA, was arrested today on a federal criminal complaint for allegedly flying a #drone over and taking photographs of Vandenberg Space Force Base. Details: https://t.co/yndtjgDzqN pic.twitter.com/7L5Qhishpd

— FBI Los Angeles (@FBILosAngeles) December 11, 2024

While we still don't know much of anything about the numerous drone sightings reported in and around New Jersey (and elsewhere) in recent weeks, there does seem to be a bit of a pattern emerging here, no?