A scary situation involving Florida drones was exposed by one government report

Jan 24, 2025

There is a dark side to drones that is being revealed. 

Public concern over them is growing. 

And a scary situation involving Florida drones was exposed by one government report. 

Report on near-fatal drone malfunction issued in Florida 

A mishap at a holiday light drone show sent a child to the hospital with a severe injury in Orlando, Florida on December 21, 2024.

Hundreds of drones took part in a synchronized drone light show where they worked in unison to create holiday images in the night sky like Santa Claus and wrapped Christmas gifts. 

The drones with red and green lights dazzled onlookers until something went terribly wrong. 

Drones began falling from the sky into the crowd of 25,000 people. 

A seven-year-old boy was struck by one of the falling drones in the chest. 

He required emergency open-heart surgery because of the injuries he suffered. 

Sky Elements Drones which ran the event had put on drone light shows for NASCAR, MLB, and NFL. 

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) signed off on the company’s Orlando show. 

Investigations were opened into the Orlando tragedy by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to determine what went wrong. 

The NTSB issued a preliminary report that found “combined errors” before the show led to some drones not following their preprogrammed flight path. 

 Report outlines the mistakes that put the public in danger from the drones 

The 500 drones that took part in the Orlando holiday light show were controlled from a command center on the ground. 

Five drones were “not accepting the launch data”, causing the operator to reboot them so they would be “show ready.”

The operator removed two of the drones from the show because their systems were out of alignment. 

“At liftoff, it was noted that the aircraft ‘layers’ did not lift uniformly,” the NTSB report stated.

“Further investigation revealed that the launch parameter file that contained the final flight paths had not been sent and that the show center was not completely aligned.”

The misalignment caused some of the drones to get out of position when they needed to operate in unison with the ones around them. 

Some drones changed their position and altitude which caused the midair crashes that sent some of them falling from the sky. 

The NSTB looked at the logs by the operator on the ground and determined he had made a mistake that resulted in the “geo hard fence being too close to the audience.”

Sky Elements drone operator told the NSTB that he thought it was safer to continue the show than try to bring the hundreds of drones back to the ground. 

“The combined errors resulted in a reduced safety area that was outside of the company’s standards,” the NTSB report read. 

FAA officials restricted Sky Elements from performing future shows near crowds and at night as a result of the Orlando accident. 

Additional safety measures were ordered like more training for operators, and a second operator onsite to ensure that proper procedures are followed. 

Drones bring a new set of risks to the sky as they grow in use. 

DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this story.

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