The man says the commentators wanted to shoot down the “drone” his son was piloting

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A man who grew up in Utah spoke out after he said social media users were encouraged to shoot down what they thought was an unauthorized drone, but it was actually a student pilot conducting a training flight.

Toby Hayes spent hours responding to social media posts about his son’s training flight in southeast Idaho.

“It’s scary to think that people are talking about shooting down planes,” Hayes said. “They’re really just people flying and doing what they do for education, for work. It’s a scary time.”

The incident began when a member of the community spotted and photographed a small aircraft flying overhead, posting it on social media, claiming it was a drone. The post quickly gained traction, with some commenters suggesting it be taken down, Hayes said.

“Social media exploded with people seeing a drone flying over the city and then all these people saying maybe they should shoot it down,” Hayes said.

That evening, he and his wife spent hours replying to posts, clarifying that “it was a plane. It was a four-seater plane. It was our son.”

Military officials stressed that planes typically operate at much higher altitudes than drones, and the FAA requires a minimum altitude.

With nearly 200 public and private airports throughout Utah, Hayes urged people to check information about aircraft before jumping to conclusions.

“Even in the Salt Lake area, there’s probably four or five airports in addition to Salt Lake International where people fly in and out on small planes while they’re training,” he said.

For those interested in identifying aircraft overhead, Hayes recommended public resources such as Flightaware and the ADS-B Exchange.

“These sites show you all the publicly available flight data of the planes flying around you,” he said. “In a lot of ways, it’s fun to watch and watch. But it’s also very informative for people.”

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