{
 "publisher": "DroneLedger",
 "site": "https://droneincidents.com",
 "generated": "2026-10-16T02:26:41+00:00",
 "release": "20261016T022641844182-b347e0",
 "license": {
  "name": "CC BY 4.0",
  "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "attribution": "DroneLedger (droneincidents.com)",
  "excludes": "Quoted source passages and linked articles remain the copyright of their publishers; they are included as short quotations for verification. Linked media and satellite images remain the rights holders' property; no image or video licence is granted by this dataset. Fonts (SIL OFL) and map data (Natural Earth, public domain) keep their own terms. City and region names in automatically published dossiers are checked against GeoNames (geonames.org, CC BY 4.0). Drone drawings and animations are schematic illustrations of a type, not evidence about any incident."
 },
 "assessmentNote": "DroneLedger assessment, not a finding. Editorial likelihood bands, not calibrated statistical confidence intervals. Unknown has no numeric probability. Outcomes are attributed reports; no totals or inference of intent from a hit.",
 "assessmentScale": {
  "version": "di-estimative-v1",
  "levels": {
   "almost_certain": {
    "low": 95,
    "high": 99
   },
   "very_likely": {
    "low": 80,
    "high": 95
   },
   "likely": {
    "low": 55,
    "high": 80
   },
   "roughly_even_chance": {
    "low": 45,
    "high": 55
   },
   "unlikely": {
    "low": 20,
    "high": 45
   },
   "very_unlikely": {
    "low": 5,
    "high": 20
   },
   "almost_no_chance": {
    "low": 1,
    "high": 5
   },
   "unknown": {
    "low": null,
    "high": null
   }
  }
 },
 "evidenceNote": "Each dossier separates three claims: drone presence, impact and attribution, each with its own evidence state and supporting sources. 'reported' means a source describes the claim without sufficient identification evidence; claims by parties to a conflict are never 'confirmed' on their own. Counts reflect dossiers in this curated archive, not all incidents worldwide. windowStart/windowEnd are reporting-window calendar bounds, not individual event days; legacy date remains the compatibility/sorting date for such records.",
 "locationNote": "lat/lon are the dossier's own approximate coordinates (see locationPrecision) and are empty when the incident location is unknown. referencePoint {lat, lon, level, name} is a display reference only: a fixed point in the named city (GeoNames), region (its administrative seat), sea or country (Natural Earth label point), derived at build time. It is not a geolocation, not an estimate of the incident location and may change when the dossier's place becomes more precise: reference point; incident location unknown.",
 "detailsNote": "media, operationalEffects, followUp and archiveEntity are editorial, source-indexed additions. Media is publisher-link only, has its own evidence status and never establishes drone presence or attribution. Debunked original-media links are removed; archived revisions omit media references. archivePattern is computed from mapped published event records at generated time, not a worldwide incident count. Null asOf means not established; publication time is not substituted.",
 "dataset": {
  "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.23345422",
  "url": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23345422",
  "note": "Citable weekly snapshot (CSV + JSON) archived on Zenodo; this DOI always resolves to the latest version."
 },
 "howToCite": "Cite the dossier URL and revision, e.g. DroneLedger, “Wine Trader hit off Romania; president says drones struck the ship”, dossier wine-trader-fire-off-romania-2026-10-15, revision 4, updated 2026-10-15. https://droneincidents.com/incident/wine-trader-fire-off-romania-2026-10-15/",
 "incident": {
  "id": "vandenberg-drone-flight-2024-11-30",
  "title": "Vandenberg drone flight followed by federal sentence",
  "place": "Lompoc",
  "country": "United States",
  "countryCode": "US",
  "date": "2024-11-30",
  "dateKind": "event",
  "scope": "single",
  "category": "military",
  "droneStatus": "reported",
  "impactStatus": "unknown",
  "attributionStatus": "convicted",
  "lat": 34.64,
  "lon": -120.46,
  "locationPrecision": "region",
  "summary": "A drone flight over Vandenberg Space Force Base on 30 November 2024 became the subject of a federal case. Subsequent reporting describes a four-month sentence for the operator.",
  "impact": "No injury, physical damage or interruption to base operations is established by these reviewed reports. The later legal sentence is not a measure of operational impact.",
  "evidence": "The local report describes the federal affidavit; Space.com separately reports the later court outcome, drawing on prosecutors and the Orange County Register. These are different reporting and legal stages of the same case, not independent technical detections. Presence is conservatively kept reported.",
  "unknown": "The initial December report described allegations and a possible maximum sentence; the April follow-up describes the actual four-month sentence, already served, with supervised release. No state direction, espionage finding or broader campaign is inferred from nationality or travel. This review does not reproduce the launch area, flight track, altitude, equipment modifications, or a private individual’s name.",
  "attribution": "A private operator was sentenced in the federal airspace case, according to the later report. This does not establish direction by a government or organisation.",
  "sources": [
   {
    "label": "Santa Barbara Independent: reporting on the federal affidavit",
    "url": "https://www.independent.com/2024/12/12/chinese-citizen-arrested-for-allegedly-flying-drone-over-and-photographing-vandenberg-space-force-base/",
    "published": "2024-12-12",
    "family": "santa-barbara-independent"
   },
   {
    "label": "Space.com: later sentencing report",
    "url": "https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/drone-pilot-who-flew-over-vandenberg-space-force-base-sentenced-to-4-months-in-jail",
    "published": "2025-04-02",
    "family": "future-space"
   }
  ],
  "timeline": [
   {
    "date": "2024-11-30",
    "text": "A drone flight over Vandenberg Space Force Base on 30 November 2024 became the subject of a federal case. Subsequent reporting describes a four-month sentence for the operator.",
    "source": 0
   },
   {
    "date": "2025-04-02",
    "text": "A later report describes a four-month sentence already served and a year of supervised release; this is a publication date, not an asserted sentencing date.",
    "source": 1
   }
  ],
  "droneStatusSources": [
   0,
   1
  ],
  "impactStatusSources": [],
  "attributionSources": [
   1
  ],
  "droneTypes": [],
  "claims": [
   {
    "id": "base-detection",
    "axis": "drone",
    "statement": "The affidavit account describes detection by base and federal systems.",
    "quote": "security systems for the base and the FBI detected the drone",
    "claimant": "Federal affidavit via local reporting",
    "originId": "vandenberg-affidavit-20241208",
    "relay": "relayed",
    "assessment": "supports",
    "note": "Short literal passage read on the public source page; reported drone presence is not technical identification.",
    "sourceIndex": 0,
    "quoteCheckedAt": "2026-10-16",
    "quoteTranslation": {}
   },
   {
    "id": "court-sentence",
    "axis": "attribution",
    "statement": "Later reporting describes a four-month sentence.",
    "quote": "sentenced to four months in prison",
    "claimant": "Federal court outcome via Space.com",
    "originId": "vandenberg-court-sentence-202503",
    "relay": "relayed",
    "assessment": "supports",
    "note": "Short literal passage read on the public source page; reported drone presence is not technical identification.",
    "sourceIndex": 1,
    "quoteCheckedAt": "2026-10-16",
    "quoteTranslation": {}
   }
  ],
  "review": "editor",
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-15",
  "autoCheckedAt": null,
  "updatedAt": "2026-10-16",
  "revision": 1,
  "series": [],
  "windowStart": null,
  "windowEnd": null,
  "windowBasis": null,
  "assessment": null,
  "outcome": [],
  "assessment_scale_version": null,
  "assessment_operator_subject": null,
  "assessment_operator_level": null,
  "assessment_operator_range_low": null,
  "assessment_operator_range_high": null,
  "assessment_target_subject": null,
  "assessment_target_level": null,
  "assessment_target_range_low": null,
  "assessment_target_range_high": null,
  "assessment_droneType_subject": null,
  "assessment_droneType_level": null,
  "assessment_droneType_range_low": null,
  "assessment_droneType_range_high": null,
  "media": [],
  "operationalEffects": [],
  "followUp": [],
  "archiveEntity": {
   "key": "vandenberg-space-force-base",
   "kind": "infrastructure",
   "label": "Vandenberg Space Force Base",
   "sourceIndex": 0
  },
  "namedLocation": null,
  "publisherMedia": [],
  "archivePattern": {
   "asOf": "2026-10-16T02:26:41+00:00",
   "entityKey": "vandenberg-space-force-base",
   "windows": [
    {
     "days": 30,
     "records": []
    },
    {
     "days": 90,
     "records": []
    }
   ],
   "note": "Only published archive records with an editorial entity mapping; unassigned records excluded. Not all real-world incidents or a common cause. No same-day matching."
  },
  "impactReports": [],
  "corroboration": "curated",
  "interceptionReported": {
   "evidenceState": "reported",
   "note": "Official aggregate claims, not independently verified kills. Parts are included only when explicitly sourced and sum to the reported total. Catalogue countermeasures are not incident evidence.",
   "counts": []
  },
  "referencePoint": null,
  "labels": {
   "category": "Military site",
   "droneStatus": "Reported",
   "impactStatus": "Not established",
   "attributionStatus": "Convicted"
  },
  "url": "https://droneincidents.com/incident/vandenberg-drone-flight-2024-11-30/",
  "citation": "DroneLedger, “Vandenberg drone flight followed by federal sentence”, dossier vandenberg-drone-flight-2024-11-30, revision 1, updated 2026-10-16. https://droneincidents.com/incident/vandenberg-drone-flight-2024-11-30/",
  "history": [
   {
    "revision": 1,
    "date": "2026-10-16",
    "at": "2026-10-16T00:46:41.555+00:00",
    "note": "Curated dossier created after checking the cited sources line by line."
   }
  ]
 }
}