Travis Sanders visited the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on Saturday night with his wife and daughter in order to see the rising lava lake at Halema’uma’u Crater, but never imagined that he’d turn into the main attraction.

At some point Sanders decided to use a drone to capture the spectacle and the crowds, later claiming he was unaware his actions were against the law, but things turned ugly when a park ranger approached and demanded that he brings it down.

Accounts of what happened after the ranger asked to see Sanders’ ID greatly differ. The photographer stated he was simply trying to avoid a confrontational ranger, while park officials said the “very unruly” suspect fled the scene and was stopped in order to protect the hundreds of people at the scene and prevent him from falling down the edge of the 500-foot deep caldera.

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