Man who crashed drone at White House was drinking

The man who crashed a drone on the White House grounds early Monday has told investigators he had been drinking, according to a Tuesday report.

{mosads}The man, a government employee, said he had been drinking at a friend’s apartment before going out to fly the drone near the White House around 3 a.m.

The New York Times reports he later went to bed after losing track of the drone, fearing that he had flown it over the White House. When friends told him about news reports on Monday morning, he decided to call the authorities. 

The crash of the roughly 2-foot-long drone has raised questions about White House defenses against an attack using a drone. The incident also comes after a string of Secret Service controversies, including a fence jumper who was able to get inside the White House in August. 

President Obama on Tuesday called for a “regulatory structure” governing the use of drones in the United States but declined to comment on the incident at the White House. 

“This is a broader problem,” Obama told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. “I’ll leave the Secret Service to talk about this particular event.”

“There are incredibly useful functions that these drones can play in terms of farmers who are managing crops and conservationists who want to take stock of wildlife,” Obama said.

He noted that companies like Amazon are experimenting with using drones to deliver packages.

“But we don’t really have any kind of regulatory structure at all for it,” he added.