Prosecutors Won't Charge Man Whose Drone Crashed Onto White House Lawn

WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) - A man who lost control of a drone that crashed onto the White House lawn in January will not face criminal charges, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said on Wednesday.

The unnamed man had borrowed the "quadcopter" drone from a friend and was flying it outside of his apartment window in downtown Washington when he lost control around 3 a.m. on January 26. Knowing that the drone's battery was low, the man went to sleep, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.

He reported the incident to the Secret Service the next day immediately after realizing from news reports that it had crashed at the White House, prosecutors said. They then determined by forensic analysis that the drone was not being controlled by anyone at the time of its crash.

A separate probe by the Federal Aviation Administration is continuing, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. (Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)