Michael DiCiurcio has gained a bit of a cult following in Philadelphia for his videos of crazy drone flights through the city’s landmarks.

But it turns out one of those followers is the Federal Aviation Administration, which last week filed a federal lawsuit asking a judge to slap him with nearly $200,000 in penalties and an order to cease the dangerous flying.

Authorities say he has flown to the tops of 1,100-foot buildings, harassed birds and crashed his drones, all on video — which is just the kind of evidence the FAA needs to make the case that he’s violated 12 federal regulations.

Repeated warnings by the FAA and the Transportation Department’s inspector general have gone unheeded, which the feds said has forced them to take the unusual step of heading to federal court to force Mr. DiCiurcio to pay up — and clean up his act.

“At least thirty-four times, DiCiurcio flew [small unmanned aircraft systems] without a remote pilot certificate, in violation of at least a dozen regulations, and under unsafe circumstances, including lacking the ability to control the sUAS, in fog, snow, rain, wind, and darkness,” said Gregory David, the assistant U.S. attorney leading the case.

Mr. DiCiurcio has a penchant for flying his drone through Philadelphia’s urban canyons and buzzing the William Penn statue that sits nearly 600 feet above the ground atop city hall.

Going to court is rare, and the size of the penalties the FAA is seeking against Mr. DiCiurcio is large compared to past actions, according to a study by Jonathan Rupprecht, a Florida-based lawyer. The record-holder was a $1.9 million fine assessed in 2015 against a Chicago-based drone photography company, SkyPan, which ended up striking a deal to pay $200,000.

The FAA says it filed 13 civil penalty cases against drone users in fiscal year 2023.

The prevailing sentiment in drone forums is that Mr. DiCiurcio was giving the drone community a bad name, and he drew the FAA’s wrath because he poked the bear with his attitude.

“This clown should not be allowed to even own a drone,” said one poster on Reddit’s drones subreddit.

Drone aficionados said the case also seemed like some message-sending to the broader drone community that the FAA will enforce its rules by going to court. But agency officials, in court documents, stressed that they kept trying to cajole Mr. DiCiurcio, and it was only after he rebuffed them — including hanging up on them at one point — that they took it to a judge.

The case has drawn significant attention in the Philadelphia area, where many residents view him as a nuisance. Indeed, viewers of his YouTube channel, PhillyDroneLife, filed repeated complaints that prodded the FAA to act.

“Flying like a maniac,” said one, while another said he had “zero control” as he flew over a city helipad. One 2022 complaint pointed out he was flying in a presidential no-fly zone, which meant the area was off-limits because President Biden was on the ground.

It probably didn’t help that, after the FAA began contacting him to offer training and safety tips, he hung up on them and then in 2022 posted a video under the title “The F— the FAA Show Live,” in which authorities said he threatened to crash his drone into a building. He has also said “the FAA is scared of me” in other videos.

Mr. DiCiurcio told WPVI-TV in Philadelphia that his videos shouldn’t be taken at face value.

“They’re videos that are edited, and as everybody knows, anything can happen in an edited video. So some of it’s real, some of it’s not, some of it is just for entertainment purposes,” he told the station.

He specifically denied being a danger.

“Hurting people with it and trying to get in the airspace, why would I do that? Why would I risk my life and people on a plane? It’s just stupid,” he said.

And he pleaded poverty over the $182,004 in fines that the FAA says he owes.

“Now imagine you’re on welfare, you have nothing, and you live in your mother’s home, now what’s going to happen to you? That’s the part that everybody needs to understand. I have nothing,” Mr. DiCiurcio told WPVI.

That drew scorn from some in the drone community, who pointed out he had enough money to buy numerous drones.

Amateur small drone pilots are supposed to keep their drones in line of sight at all times, keep within 400 feet of the ground and pass a safety test. If they want to fly in restricted areas such as near airports, they need to get approval.

Pilots who make money off their drones must also obtain a certification and register the drones. The FAA says Mr. DiCiurcio, in trying to monetize his videos, should have to meet those standards.

While Mr. DiCiurcio faces a civil case, some drone pilots have been charged criminally for their flight behavior.

A 62-year-old California man was sentenced in November to 120 hours of community service and a year of probation after flying his drone near manned aircraft on three occasions in his quest for breathtaking videos.

“I was taken away by the quality and beauty, and I never stepped back and considered that they could be harmful, or scary or dangerous to other(sic) who were near the drones,” Alexander Milinovic wrote in a letter to the judge.

And earlier this month, the feds charged a Pennsylvania man with illegally operating a drone after authorities say he buzzed M&T Bank stadium in Baltimore during a National Football League conference championship game in January. Officials deemed the drone enough of a threat that they temporarily halted the game.

State police troopers tracked the drone back to its landing site, and they and FBI agents swooped in to arrest Matthew Hebert.

Investigators said he told them he was relying on his drone’s automatic system that he said usually prevents him from flying into restricted space. He said his DJI drone didn’t alert him, so he figured he was safe to fly.

In Mr. DiCiurcio’s case, his YouTube channel watchers say he also uses a DJI drone that issues warnings, but he regularly ignores them.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.