Drone News: Angel Aerial's New Drone, Pilot Pleads Guilty, Drone Captures a Rescue, Amazon's New SCL

Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have four stories for you this week: a new NDAA-compliant drone from Angel Aerial, a drone pilot who was sentenced for flying over Cape Canaveral, a drone captured a rescue in North Carolina, and Amazon has revealed a new safety system for its delivery drones.

First up, Ohio-based Angel Aerial Systems has released a new NDAA-compliant tricopter called the Trio Scout. Its big claim to fame is a 100-minute hover time. The Trio Scout weighs 5.5 pounds, including its battery. The payload is a dual EO/thermal gimbal, featuring a 1280x720 electro-optical camera with 20x optical and 2x digital zoom for a total of 40x zoom. The thermal camera is a 640x480 sensor with 4x digital zoom. The company claims a max transmission distance of 1.86 miles and a wind tolerance of 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph. The price is listed at $34,999 with a 10-week lead time. Now, the 100-minute flight time is from real-world tests, not theoretical flight time. The company is transparent that in warmer conditions, like 120 degrees Fahrenheit at 5,000 feet, you're looking at about 88 minutes and in the extreme cold, that can drop to 65 minutes.Next up, a 71-year-old Canadian drone pilot, Xiao Guang Pan, has been sentenced for illegally flying his drone over Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida. He pleaded guilty to unlawfully photographing defense installations and received 12 months of probation before being deported back to Canada.According to court records, in January of this year, NASA officials detected a drone near the base. Deputies found Pan operating a DJI Mavic 3 Pro from a nearby parking lot. He had reportedly been flying in the area for at least three consecutive days. While he was flying in Class D airspace, he was right on the edge of restricted areas. His drone captured 56 images and two videos of sensitive infrastructure.When questioned, Pan claimed he was just a tourist photographing cruise ships and sunrises and that he hadn't received any airspace warnings. However, a forensic analysis of his devices told a very different story. Investigators found over 1,900 files, including 243 images and 13 videos of the base. More importantly, the drone's data logs showed that the DJI system had issued multiple geofencing and airspace warnings.And in our third story this week, incredible drone footage has been released showing the rescue of a pilot from a plane that crashed into the ocean off Oak Island, North Carolina. On August 2nd, a single-engine plane piloted by Mark Finkelstein suffered an engine failure, forcing him to ditch the aircraft in the ocean. Luckily, the Oak Island Beach Safety Unit was nearby and responded immediately. They launched a drone, which provided a crystal-clear, stable overhead view of the entire scene. You can see the rescuers surrounding the cockpit and pulling Finkelstein out feet-first through the windshield. The entire extraction took less than 30 seconds once they reached him. He walked away with only a minor cut.Lastly, Amazon is rolling out a new safety feature for its delivery drones. The new tech is called "Safe Contingent Landings," or SCL. It’s a sophisticated "Plan B" for the drone if it detects a major problem like a system malfunction or severe weather. Instead of just falling or making a risky return flight, the drone can autonomously scan the ground in real-time, build a 3D map, and find a safe spot to land, avoiding people, animals, and cars. http://dronexl.co/2025/09/02/drone-captures-rescue-pilot-from-plane/https://dronexl.co/2025/09/02/amazon-drones-now-have-plan-b/https://dronexl.co/2025/08/28/angel-aerials-trio-scout-drone-ndaa/https://dronexl.co/2025/08/28/drone-pilot-sentenced-cape-canaveral-space-force-base/