Kerrville’s Drone Collision and the Lobbying Lies That Followed
How a law enforcement drone collision sparked a false narrative—and exposed the silence that let it spread
On the morning of July 7, 2025, a Texas Army National Guard Blackhawk helicopter collided with a DJI Mavic 3E drone during a flood rescue mission near Kerrville, Texas. Almost immediately, the City of Kerrville issued a statement that omitted key facts—and allowed a false narrative to take root. Public figures and lobbying groups quickly seized on the confusion to point fingers at civilian drone pilots and Chinese manufacturers. But the truth was much simpler, and much more inconvenient.
The drone was not rogue. It wasn’t flown by a hobbyist or reckless operator. It was a law enforcement aircraft, operated by a Texas state trooper during an authorized search and rescue mission with state-coordinated airspace permissions. And instead of stating that clearly, the city said nothing more—while lobbyists used the vacuum to push for new restrictions.
“The drone operator was a trooper. A state cop,” said one source familiar with the incident, who spoke on condition of anonymity but whose identity is known to The Zero Lux. “And instead of telling the truth, they let the public think it was some civilian breaking the law. That’s just wrong.”
In a July 7 Facebook post, the City of Kerrville wrote that a drone had caused the crash, referencing a “rogue UAS.” No mention was made of the agency responsible or the pilot’s law enforcement status. The city later issued a second public statement that again failed to correct the record or name the operator. Emails reviewed by The Zero Lux show no indication that the city sought to clarify the drone’s affiliation—even after internal communications confirmed it.
Mark Colborn, a retired Dallas Police Department helicopter pilot, emphasized the need for greater transparency and discipline in public safety drone operations. “This was preventable,” Colborn said. “When public safety pilots over-rely on automated features without respecting line-of-sight or situational awareness, accidents like this aren’t surprising. They’re inevitable if no one’s honest about what went wrong.”
“I’ve seen law enforcement sitting in their vehicles, flying BVLOS, relying entirely on return-to-home automation rather than maintaining LOS [line of sight],” said one public safety UAS operator who spoke on condition of anonymity. “That’s how you get these kinds of accidents.”
Burton Wyatt, said the incident reflects broader coordination failures—not just technical issues. “I’ve worked as a firefighter and done drone work in fire, police, and EMS integration. So I’m looking at this from multiple sides,” he said.
“This shouldn’t have happened, but it’s not because the drone was Chinese or because the pilot was a hobbyist,” he added. “It’s because we still don’t have a consistent protocol for how manned and unmanned systems share airspace during emergency operations.”
He emphasized that return to home functions—common on DJI’s Enterprise drones—are meant as a failsafe, not a primary flight strategy. “Too often it becomes the default,” Wyatt said, “especially when pilots are sitting inside vehicles, out of view of their aircraft.”
While the facts remained buried, lobbyists filled the void. Michael Robbins, President and CEO of the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), referenced the Kerrville incident during July testimony before Congress.
“The helicopter incident in Texas… the Chinese-made technology is allowing them to do things like search and rescue,” Robbins said.
Implying the incident justified concerns about drone misuse and national security. He did not mention that the drone was operated by a law enforcement officer under state authority.
Charles Werner, a retired veteran fire chief and founder of DroneResponders, said the public deserved better. “We need facts before we politicize,” he told The Zero Lux. “There is a difference between a reckless civilian pilot and an error made by trained law enforcement during a flood rescue.”
The DJI Mavic 3E is part of DJI’s Enterprise lineup—commonly used in public safety operations nationwide. Its integration with DroneSense allows for mission coordination and telemetry tracking, often used by agencies to support incident command during disasters. According to documents obtained by The Zero Lux, the Kerrville flight was not only operating with known airspace approval but had been integrated into the state's SAR operations that day.
Flight telemetry and logs reviewed by The Zero Lux show the drone’s return-to-home sequence was triggered in the moments leading up to the collision. The DroneSense interface places the aircraft near the intersection of Loop 534 and State Highway 27—just southeast of Kerrville Municipal Airport—at an altitude consistent with BVLOS operations. Logs confirm the operator notified command that the drone was returning automatically, with no immediate input confirming visual contact. This sequence aligns with comments from retired Dallas police pilot Mark Colborn, who warned that “law enforcement flying from inside vehicles” and “relying entirely on return-to-home automation” can lead to loss of situational awareness. The map confirms no visual obstruction warnings were logged before the drone ascended, reinforcing the conclusion that this was an automated return rather than a manually piloted conflict.
The flight path of the Texas Army National Guard Blackhawk, as confirmed by sources familiar with the incident and corroborated by the DroneSense map overlay, shows the helicopter approaching from the north-northwest along a flood-impacted corridor near the Guadalupe River. At the time of collision, the helicopter was descending toward a known rescue coordination zone east of the airport—directly intersecting the return trajectory of the Mavic 3E. Given the drone’s automated climb during its return-to-home sequence, and the Blackhawk’s low-level ingress typical of search-and-rescue maneuvers, both aircraft occupied overlapping airspace below 400 feet. No ADS-B beacon was present on the military aircraft, a standard exemption for National Guard assets, which meant the drone system had no automated deconfliction warning before the two collided.
Despite that, no correction was ever issued by the city acknowledging that the pilot was a state officer. No formal retraction has been posted. The FAA has not released an incident report, and the NTSB has not made any findings public.
Freedom of Information Act requests have been filed with the NTSB, Army National Guard and the FAA. As of publication, no response has been received. Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed receipt of a records request and stated that documents would be provided within ten business days.
The Kerrville incident wasn’t a cautionary tale about foreign drones. It was a failure of communication, a collapse of public trust, and an example of how facts can be reshaped when those in power stay silent.
When governments withhold truth, others rush in to sell their own version of it. And that version—like the city’s first post—has already disappeared.
This story isn’t about blaming law enforcement, DFR programs, or the men and women who stepped up to assist during a crisis. It’s about accountability. Transparency. And preserving public trust in the very institutions that promise to protect us.
If you have information related to the July 7 Kerrville drone incident—or others like it—reach out: contact@thezerolux.com
The founder doesn’t drink. But to the reporters who dismissed this publication as just another “blog,” he’ll raise a 0% Heineken and toast to the slow collapse of legacy media’s press-release pipeline. The truth still matters. You just won’t find it where you're told to look.