Remember that time during the fires in the Palisades area in Los Angeles, when somebody flew a drone into a fire-fighting scooper plane that grounded it for five days while the fires raged and destroyed lives and property?

Well; that person has been caught, charged and actually owned up to his crime.

And, as it turns out the culprit is a former Hollywood executive.

Well; to be technically factual, he was the president of a video game entity that a Hollywood company acquired in 2016 turned into a virtual reality and video game, with him staying as president.

But we can hear all the wheels turning in your prejudicial thoughts about the privileges of being rich… so there you go.

Yesterday, former president of Skydance Interactive Peter Akemann pleaded guilty to recklessly operating a drone that crashed into and damaged the Super Scooper firefighting aircraft battling the Palisades Fire last month.

According to the US Attorney’s Office, Akemann, 56, entered his plea to a federal class-A misdemeanour count of unsafe operation of an unmanned aircraft.

Sentencing was set for June 2.

It is suspected that Akemann will not face jail time for his crime, with reports suggesting that – thanks to a plea deal with the feds and an apparent software glitch – Akemann won’t serve a single day in prison for recklessly flying his DJI Mini 3 Pro into the wing of the Canadair CL-415 Super Scooper on January 9, Acting United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally said.

Akemann appeared in court recently on a charge of criminal misdemeanour and another on unsafe operation of an unmanned aircraft and walked out soon afterwards on a $15,000 bond.

Outside the federal courthouse, McNally said that Akemann acknowledged his “conduct posed an imminent threat to firefighting crews.”

Despite the loss of a pivotal aircraft for five days in the battle against the Palisades Fire that devastated most of the upmarket neighbourhood and the risk the so-called illegal drone posed to the two-member crew of the Quebec-based plane, the former video game exec will only have to fork out a bit more than $65,000 to the Canadian province to cover plane repairs.

According to the Department of Justice, the Culver City-based Akemann will also have to “complete 150 hours of community service in support of the 2025 Southern California wildfire relief effort” – whatever that means now that the hurricane-force winds and fires have subsided.

“As this case demonstrates, we will track down drone operators who violate the law and interfere with the critical work of our first responders,” McNally said.

Maybe, but some – especially those who lost valuables to the fires – want a bit more than merely tracking down errant drone owners.

“This is not justice,” one industry Palisades resident who suffered greatly during the fires told Deadline after news of Akemann’s plea deal went public.

“I’m not saying it would have, but that plane could have maybe saved homes and businesses if it hadn’t been damaged.”

Akemann, who worked at the Skydance from 2016 until around 2022, apparently took his drone to the top of a parking lot at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica on January 9 as the fires raged.

Prosecutors say his intent was to get some footage of the blazes, but Akemann lost sight and control of the DJI Mini 3 Pro after it had flown about 1.5 miles away.

It was then that the drone collided with the Super Scooper, opening a 3- by 6-inch hole in the left wing, taking the vitally needed plane out of commission.

Wreckage of the drone found on the crime scene led the investigators to Akemann.

Emphasizing that their client is “deeply sorry” and “accepts responsibility for his grave error in judgment,” Akemann’s lawyers Glen T. Jonas and Vicki Podberesky said today that the loss of control was based in part on the failure of the drone’s “geofencing safeguard feature.”

Err… we don’t know about this though, as DJI announced that it was removing geofencing restrictions on DJI drones from January 13 – four days after Akemann lost sights of his drones in the smokes of the Palisades fires.

“With this update, DJI’s Fly and Pilot flight app operators will see prior DJI geofencing datasets replaced to display official Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) data,” DJI said in its announcement.

“Areas previously defined as Restricted Zones (also known as No-Fly Zones) will be displayed as Enhanced Warning Zones, aligning with the FAA’s designated areas.

“In these zones, in-app alerts will notify operators flying near FAA designated controlled airspace, placing control back in the hands of the drone operators, in line with regulatory principles of the operator bearing final responsibility.”

We are also not sure whether the Palisades area would have fallen in the no-fly zone; or if the restrictions would have kicked in, just because there has been a fire in the area.