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In March, U.S. officials detected drones flying above high-security military bases in Washington D.C., including one where Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth live. During that same time frame, the FBI was investigating why a DJI drone flew close to Pentagon headquarters and over the Washington Navy Yard, a command center for the military agency and home to senior Navy admirals. The incident has not been previously reported.

The pilot was an American drone hobbyist and a former military staffer, per a search warrant reviewed by Forbes. He told cops he liked to post scenic footage from his DJI device to Instagram and was unaware he was flying the drone in protected airspace. “It was just an honest mistake,” he tells Forbes.

While the Instagrammer’s drone flight appears to have been innocuous, it highlights a security problem with the U.S. capital’s protected airspace. Virginia Senator Mark Warner tells Forbes that if a Chinese-made drone was able to fly over some of the most sensitive facilities in the U.S., it was a “serious security failure.”

“In this threat environment, drone incursions over sensitive sites cannot be treated........

© Forbes