Laguna Beach man pleads guilty to launching drones at aircraft

A 62-year-old Laguna Beach man pleaded guilty Thursday to launching drones near three aircraft, risking dangerous crashes.

Alexander Milinovic pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of unsafe operation of an unmanned aircraft, federal prosecutors said. He was scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 28.

On June 19 last year, Milinovic directed a drone at a father and son in an open-cockpit gyrocopter on Father’s Day off the coast of Crescent Bay Beach in Laguna Beach, prompting the son, who was flying the aircraft, to make an emergency evasive maneuver, according to federal prosecutors.

The defendant also admitted launching a drone on July 26 of last year at the Discovery Channel “Shark Week’’ blimp in the Laguna Beach area, prosecutors said.

Milinovic also admitted launching a drone at U.S. Coast Guard helicopter on March 19, missing it by about 200 feet, prosecutors said. The crew aboard the helicopter managed to steer just clear of it, prosecutors said.