Drones can crash planes or enact terrorism, FAA fears. Pilots say new rules would ruin their hobby

LOS ANGELES – It was an otherwise routine flight until, at an altitude of about 1,100 feet east of this city's downtown, the crew aboard the news chopper heard a loud bang. "The pilot and I just looked at each other. 'What was that?'" reporter Chris Cristi of KABC-TV remembers thinking. Not far from their base, they landed Air 7 HD, as their Eurocopter is known to viewers, and discovered a dent in the horizontal stabilizer and next to it, a gash and one-inch hole. There was no blood or feathers as if they had hit a bird.