Got Hit by a Drone Today

[Joel Arvidsson]

I make it a policy (and anyone who flies anything with props should too) that there is no flying over people who are not actors and aware of the risks. That means no crowd shots, no concerts, no games. Kid of common sense, but a lot of people are stupid.

Nick

This is absolutely how it should be done. Are you allowed to fly drones over public crowds in us?


He should have rigged a cable cam over the parade instead. That said, I don't think this pilot will try something like this again. Sometimes its better to forgive and learn than just to punish him. I think he do understand how bad it actually could have gone, to bad it had to go this long before he realized thoe! Why not use him to preach the danger in flying drones
over crowds.

 

[Tony Mac]

Flying in an urban area with people is already a bad idea, let alone when there's a parade going on! I use my Phantom 2 quite a bit for projects and generally try to fly it within my line of sight, or if I'm using the video feed, know exactly where it is and what is surrounding it. Having the video feed also gives important information from the drone about battery life, compass heading, height from the ground, ect.

Generally I fly with the GPS assisted mode on all the time, it helps it to hold it's position in the air, say a gust of wind were to blow it. In urban areas it can be dangerous because if the battery runs low, it automatically flies 60ft up and returns to where you first turned it on. In that case, the operator loses control unless they know to flip to switch off of GPS mode.

In this case I don't think I would press charges or anything, because it seems like it was genuinely an accident. Given the circumstances, a relatively inexperienced pilot, flying over a large crowd in an urban setting where he lost control of the drone, it should be obvious that drone usage in that particular situation can be dangerous and should've been avoided altogether by the pilot.

I love using these things and would hate for a bunch of irresponsible users causing accidents to ban them forever...

https://vimeo.com/108622179

 

[Christoffer Glans]

I like the rule of consensus, that people need to have agreed to have a drone above them. On top of that I think that drone flying over crowds or similar need to be done by a licensed drone user. If a drone is flying in areas where no immediate danger is present to other people (in a park, if someone is hit it's still considered such a minimal risk), or during a shoot in an area that is watched by the crew, you don't need a license.

I cannot see why there shouldn't be a license to fly drones within areas with mid to high risk of damage to property or people. It's like letting someone without driving license drive in high traffic areas. You CAN kill someone with a drone, that should not be forgotten.

 

[Scott Crawley]

or during a shoot in an area that is watched by the crew, you don't need a license.

So if you have a crew you wouldn't need a license?

What would a crew be able to do to prevent an aircraft from hitting those unsuspecting people below? What constitutes a crew? Can I just pay one of the people nearby a fee and call them a crewman to completely get around a training requirement?

 

[Björn Benckert]

Licensed or not drones will keep on falling down. Just like cars will keep on crashing even though people go trough quite a bit of training and get a license before they drive them. For Mopeds, dirtbikes, highspeed boats and jetskis there is no license needed and well there are accidents but I think not so much more then there is for normal motorcycles.

We have a pretty big drone and I can only say that i would not want to fly it around people. We crashed it several times, RC errors, human errors, but also things like... a screw vibrate loose in one of the motor mounts and the thing went of like a discus towards the neighbors... my college made the vice decision opt for safety and just slam it into the ground. No really expansive camera mounted or such but it takes a bit of decision making to do so when you know that that the gimbal, the props and pretty much everything else will turn into scraps.

Another story, a quite big production with a famous commercial director had a huge drone flying around infront of a beach hotell the area was locked of and all safety procedures where made... Well, operator lost control of the drone so it flew away over and behind some sand dunes far away. When they run over there the thing was completely smashed and it was laying in a daycare playground for kids that was closed as the season just had not started just yet, if they would have shot a few weeks later the place would have been filled with kids playing there The drone crashed was one of those that can take 15kg or so...

So the shit thing is that even if you take caution drones comes with a risk. Possibly they will be able to make better safety systems with parashots and props that are shielded and so on but still this kind of technology is pretty far from fail safe

 

[Frank Glencairn]

Imagin how things might have gone differently if that drone had of hit your daughter in the face and injured her eye to the extent that she spends the rest of her life with monocular vision. .

I can't see how the age (daughter) or gender of a person, that was injured by a drone would make any difference.
Would it be less bad if it happened to a 40 year old guy?

And for the record: a license doesn't help against technical failure or idiots - and as we know from the streets, there is always both at work.
The Chance of getting hit by a drone (even if the number doubles till next year,) is about in the same league as getting hit by lightning - actually I think more folks get hit by lightning.
You are 10000 x more prone to get run over by a car with airbags and safety belts, driven by a licensed driver.

 

[Christoffer Glans]

So if you have a crew you wouldn't need a license?

What would a crew be able to do to prevent an aircraft from hitting those unsuspecting people below? What constitutes a crew? Can I just pay one of the people nearby a fee and call them a crewman to completely get around a training requirement?

What I meant was that the area is controlled by a crew, like a street closed off for shooting as you always do on a shoot.

So the shit thing is that even if you take caution drones comes with a risk.

So, there should be some technology to prevent accidents, like an emergency parachute if the thing drops at a higher velocity than it should or if it goes outside a certain GPS area. Right now there aren't any safety measures, like a car without airbags or seat belts or brakes for that matter. There should be some kind of safety standard for drones which are meant to fly in high risk zones. If you fly your little Phantom over grand canyon that's not a high risk zone. If you fly above a crowd that's definitely a high risk zone. In those cases I think there should definitely be some safety guidelines, demands on safety gear for the drones and a licensed drone pilot to fly it. There are certain rules for flying model aircrafts and helicopters, why shouldn't there be for drones?

I think there are ways to keep safety on board, both for property and people and of course also for the equipment. For smaller drones that might be difficult, but for larger heavier drones meant for cameras like Epic/Arri I think it should be demanded.

 

[Ken Butti]

Hey Scott, sorry to hear you got hit by a drone! and lucky you or your daughter werent hurt.

I'm a licenced and trained commercial drone pilot and i see on facebook and youtube a lot of ignorant people flying dangerously. Its really bad for the industry when enthusiast drone flyers who are un aware of the laws and risks to collapse an industry of potentially amazing new utilities.

The pilot saying he didn't think it would do any damage is a ridiculous excuse. In Australia there are strict laws about flying within 30 meters of population, etc.
here is a link to some laws of which he was breaking.
http://www.helitheory.com.au/are-you-operating-your-uav-legally/

He was definitely in the wrong. It just depends if you deserve compensation.

 

[Ken Willinger]

Ouch... glad you're OK Scott. Could have been a disaster.

 

[Scott Crawley]

Its really bad for the industry when enthusiast drone flyers who are un aware of the laws and risks to collapse an industry of potentially amazing new utilities.

I was against requiring a commercial pilot's license for these at first, but for the reasons Ken states (including the one quoted) it is important. Perhaps the U.S. needs to follow the Aussie lead on this.

 

[Nick Fury]

A cynic might say that, if the U.S. trial attorney lobby weren't as powerful as it is, there would already be significant legal restrictions on drone use, down to the parents' responsibilities for their children's use, in terms of specific use, training and insurance requirements. OTOH, this is going to occur, for myriad reasons, the most likely catalyst being a national security impetus. Nevertheless, serious bodily injury would propel this forward as well...

Thank you very much

Fury

 

[Med D]

I can't see how the age (daughter) or gender of a person, that was injured by a drone would make any difference.
Would it be less bad if it happened to a 40 year old guy?

Yes, it would be less bad if it happened to a 40 year old guy. Still very bad, but less so.

 

[Alex Doctor]

I don't know what the rules are in the US but I would assume that the first rule of thumb for using a drone is don't fly over people unless they have given permission and are aware.

 

[Joel Arvidsson]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aexo/aexo-the-protector-drone?ref=video

 

[Chris McKechnie]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aexo/aexo-the-protector-drone?ref=video

If that thing falls out of the sky, it's still going to do some damage.

And glad you're ok Scot.

 

[John Marchant]

I have nothing good to say about drones. I've been a safety officer at an RC club, and have been around toys that fly both small and very large for a long time. The more you know, the more dangerous they appear. Quadcopters and the like are a poisonous mixture - inherently unstable and bristling with sharp moving parts,with terrible modes of failure, yet cheap, exciting, widely available and wrapped in a thin glossy veneer of instant no-brain usability.

I wouldn't fly something as harmless as an all-foam glider anywhere near people, despite my considerable skill at so doing. Never mind a whirling mass of cheap sharp plastic and beta grade firmware.

Its not to say they shouldn't exist as a professional tool, or for a dedicated and licensed hobbyist. Plenty of things carry inherent and significant risk in everyday life, but we license and control their sale and use. Insisting that accidents happen anyway is a terrible argument against regulation. People crash vehicles every day, so what... We should give up on training and licensing drivers, requiring them to meet standards of skill (and sobriety), carrying insurance, and maintaining their vehicle in a roadworthy state?

Punishment for circumventing these things maliciously and causing an accident in most parts of the world tends to mean time behind bars. No lesser standard should apply to flying a drone - right now its like the wild west, and it stinks.

 

[Christoffer Glans]

A cynic might say that, if the U.S. trial attorney lobby weren't as powerful as it is, there would already be significant legal restrictions on drone use, down to the parents' responsibilities for their children's use, in terms of specific use, training and insurance requirements. OTOH, this is going to occur, for myriad reasons, the most likely catalyst being a national security impetus. Nevertheless, serious bodily injury would propel this forward as well...

Thank you very much

Fury

Even without the over the top suing rates in US I think it's rather more common sense that a drone must have a licensed pilot in order to maintain safety. This technology has exploded on the market and there are so many owners of them that it's only a matter of time before some dumbass kills someone because of recklessness when flying. It's all fun and games until something happens, then there will be restrictions and safety measures that goes beyond practical. Better to do something now before someone is seriously hurt and it goes viral.

 

[Sergio Perez]

Even without the over the top suing rates in US I think it's rather more common sense that a drone must have a licensed pilot in order to maintain safety. This technology has exploded on the market and there are so many owners of them that it's only a matter of time before some dumbass kills someone because of recklessness when flying. It's all fun and games until something happens, then there will be restrictions and safety measures that goes beyond practical. Better to do something now before someone is seriously hurt and it goes viral.

Can't agree more!

 

[Ian Laurie]

Maybe its a product of my location and upbringing, but I grew up doing a lot of stupid things that could have killed me, or others that i was with. and despite numerous injuries, we all survived. I think there should be maybe some kind of legislation for cities, or other high density areas, but otherwise leave it be. im a big fan of avoiding everything being legislated.

 

[Christoffer Glans]

Maybe its a product of my location and upbringing, but I grew up doing a lot of stupid things that could have killed me, or others that i was with. and despite numerous injuries, we all survived. I think there should be maybe some kind of legislation for cities, or other high density areas, but otherwise leave it be. im a big fan of avoiding everything being legislated.

"Despite numerous injuries, we all survived", are you joking? Not to be too harsh but that might be one of the most stupid things I've heard in here. Rules and regulations for dangerous things aren't meant to keep you and your reckless friends from injuring or killing yourself, it's meant to protect others who haven't agreed to be killed by a falling drone. Having rules about the safety of drones should apply to all areas, especially licenses. Why? Because there are a lot of stupid people in the world with reckless ideas about how to behave in public. Murphys law, some kid somewhere, some time will be killed by a falling drone and then the banning of drones will begin.

Of course there should be regulations, but those regulations should not be a result of a previous accident, because such regulations tend to be too strict in order to comply with public demand. If regulations are set now to keep the equipment safe for others, there will be some cases of injuries that could be handled by saying that people didn't follow the regulations needed and the usage of drones will keep being pretty open because it's clearly a human error rather than dangerous tech.
The worst case scenario for everyone is if someone is killed and there is a public outcry against drones, banning them entirely for use.