At Lake Eola, Florida, on December 21 – as you can see in the ABC report from the time – multiple display drones fell into the crowd. Horrifyingly, the reporter shares that a seven-year-old was "rushed for emergency heart surgery" as a result of being struck in the chest by a drone.
The fact that there was an injury is horrible. The boy needed open heart surgery from a strike at (according to some) 50mph, and his family set up a GoFundMe (which has raised in excess of $36,000) to pay for it. Seven year old Zander Edgerton has since recovered enough to return home after a week, having had some repairs to heart valves, but was able to give visiting TV crews (see WFTV report) a wave and thumbs up!
Looking to the future it begs serious questions about the tech and the approval process. The industry is already starting to hint at some answers – but do they make sense?
The drone show was, like others, approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the government agency that looks after all flying in the US, from drones to passenger flights. It creates new rules as tech like drones develops, and ensures they are followed, while the NTSB investigates accidents and proposes new rules – from drones to plane crashes. Both are involved now, and since the incident, the FAA has restricted some of the company's operations and begun an investigation with the NTSB.
From analyzing the video it seems that the two "geofences" completely failed to protect the crowd, so when the drones failed, they were able to fly into the crowd passing through what should have been two 'invisible barriers'.
The idea behind geofences is that, if the drone senses it has reached the perimeter edge, it shuts down. The fences should be placed at a safe distance from the crowd, with enough distance to allow for any momentum.
This geofence failure also sounds to be the conclusion of this video post by Flyby Guys, which makes a lot of sensible points about the incident and about waiting for the FAA/NTSB investigation – but it's worth remembering that as a member of the industry, there is a vested interest.
Tellingly the video doesn't have a lot to say about why so many drones seemed to lose their positioning and then fail to shut down when they did.
Moreover, for all the solidity of the word 'fence', a geofence only exists if the drone understands where it is AND is able to take action. Clearly at least one of the requirements wasn't true as some of the failing drones continued, still powered, for some distance.
Sure, we know what should have happened. But we don't know any more about why it didn't. Since multiple drones seem to stray, my guess is software – which also underpins the geofence. But which software, and from where?
This incident comes at a time when drones from China are under a lot of scrutiny in the US, however, the event was run by American display company, Sky Elements, a company that is stated to use "high-quality drones equipped with reliable communication systems and robust flight hardware."
We don't know which drones were being used at the time, but Sky Elements has in the past used UVify drones, a company headquartered in Seattle (but doing its construction in Korea).
I personally think fireworks are more fun and also don't have software (once they've been fired), and incidentally, fireworks were invented in China between the 9th and 14th centuries.
So that's at least one conspiracy we can lay to rest – hacking. However, while, I tend to assume accident rather than conspiracy, anything with software can be hacked.
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Check our guide to the best beginner drone (which has a lot of very safe choices) and best camera drone.
