The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a request earlier today for public assistance in spotting a rogue drone in New York [3]. An Alitalia pilot told Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials that he spotted a small unmanned drone in his airplane's flight path over Brooklyn [4] on Monday afternoon (it wasn't us, we swear) [5]. “The FBI is asking anyone with information about the unmanned aircraft or the operator to contact us,” said agent John Giacalone in a press release. “Our paramount concern is the safety of aircraft passengers and crew.”

According to the Alitalia pilot, the drone was spotted approximately four miles southeast of Kennedy airport--meaning it was most likely flown over the Sandy-impacted Long Island suburb of Atlantic Beach. The UAV appeared to be small and to be a hobbyist model rather than the larger drones used by the military and government agencies.

The FAA is already investigating the incident [6]. Hobbyist UAVs are increasingly cheap to purchase [7] and are frequently used illegally for aerial filmmaking purposes such as location surveying and real estate photography. Kennedy Airport has had its own security headaches recently; in November, crooks stole $1.5 million worth of iPad Minis [8] from the airport and a jet skier accidentally penetrated Kennedy's $100 million security parameter [9] this past August.

[Image: Flickr user Saaby [10]]