Category Archives: Wrecks/Fails/Close Calls
Drone hits Chinese toddler, causing facial injury. Owner fled the park where it struck the boy.
Pictures show the boy with a large gash several centimeters long across his face, from the right of his nose to the top of his left eyebrow.
He was given seven stitches, according to a report by Beijing Morning Post. Police said they were investigating a 14-year-old expat, it said.
Eyewitnesses said the drone’s owner had blond hair and left the park after it hit Chengcheng, stated website The Beijinger, which said recently installed CCTV cameras were not recording at the time.
Read the full story here.
A year of drone rescues around the world.
In the past year alone, media accounts from five continents have documented dozens of people saved from danger thanks to drones. Rescuers have used drones to drop buoys to struggling swimmers in Australia and Brazil; England and America; and find stranded people in farm fields, along rivers and on mountain trails.
From May 2017 through April 2018, DJI has counted 65 people who were rescued from peril by use of a drone.
A single incident involved 24 tourists lost at night on a mountain with no food or water. Searchers found them with a drone after three hours of effort, and needed hours more to carry them to safety. While it is unlikely that all 24 would have perished without the drone’s help, some were clearly saved from potential injury or death
:
Drone sparks 335-acre wildfire north of Flagstaff, Arizona
A “personal drone” burst into flames Tuesday afternoon, sparking a wildfire that quickly grew to more than 300 acres in northern Arizona, officials said.
The Kendrick Fire, southeast of Kendrick Park and northwest of Flagstaff, started about 12:35 p.m. and quickly blackened about 335 acres of grass before crews stopped its spread, Coconino National Forest spokesman George Jozens said.