White House Drone Pilot: Drunk Spy Agency Worker

A spy agency employee exposed a big hole in White House security this week but he's unlikely to get a promotion for it: The man was off-duty, drunk, and playing with a friend's drone when he crashed it on the White House grounds around 3am Monday, reports the New York Times. Officials say that after the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency employee lost control of the quadcopter a few blocks from the president's home, he told friends he worried it had gone down on the White House grounds and contacted his employer and the Secret Service the next day when he realized it had caused a major security scare.

The NGA says the employee is "not involved in work related to drones or unmanned aerial vehicles in any capacity" at the agency and even though he "was using a personal item while off duty, the agency takes the incident very seriously and remains committed to promoting public trust and transparency," reports NBC. It's not clear what, if any, disciplinary measures the employee will face. In a CNN interview yesterday, President Obama said that while drones have "incredibly useful functions," there needs to be some kind of regulation in place. He noted that the one that landed on the White Grounds is one "you buy in Radio Shack." (More White House stories.)