https://ghostarchive.org/archive/kyqWG
At least five drone shows have been canceled, or have paused the use of the systems, after several drones struck a crowd at a holiday show in Orlando on December 21.
Universal Orlando, Orlando World Center Marriott, the cities of Dallas and Austin, Texas, and a New Year’s Eve event in New York City’s Central Park have either canceled drone shows or the drone components of larger holiday events following the incident.
It is unclear which companies were under contract to produce the shows in each location.
Footage captured on December 21shows drones colliding with each other before falling from the sky during a holiday show at Lake Eola Park. Some drones fell into the lake, some onto the ground and some into areas where a crowd was watching.
Among them was a 7-year-old boy who was struck in his chest by one of the drones. He underwent emergency heart surgery, according to a GoFundMe campaign posted by his family, who spent Christmas in the hospital as he recovered. CNN has reached out to his family for an update on his condition.
The videoshowed several red and green drones crashing into one another before hitting the ground, in what the city described as “technical difficulties,” following the incident.
From the video I saw of the incident, it looks like they were flying them from a safe distance to the crowd. But possibly some kind of interference or routine code bug caused some to drop and others to shoot out in random directions at full speed. As an FPV pilot, it’s crazy how fast they can pick up speed. I wonder if they lost all TX/RX abilities in order to turn them off. It happened to me once, luckily in a field alone and was only able to find it because of the stupid loud beeper I put on it.
I think drone shows are super neat, but there maybe needs to be a minimum distance regulation and required netting in front of crowds before we keep bringing the tech to events.
That’s a great idea, although I still think the drones should be programmed that in the event they lose RX for more than a second or so or if they detect a collision to immediately cut all power to the motors.