NEW YORK, NY – September 30th, 2013
I’ve told all my friends that it was bound to happen sooner or later, and sure enough it happened today – a MultiRotor fell out of the sky and onto a busy New York City street. It nearly hit a businessman, who was on his way home from work. “My first thought was, ‘Someone’s done something reckless,’ ” the man told ABC/7. “They made an active decision to fly something that they don’t have control over, obviously, through the most crowded city in the most crowded time of the day.”
As you’ll see in the news video above and full video below, the operator of this DJI Phantom Quadcopter is clearly a novice and had no business flying over an area known to be congested by commuting human beings.
News sources say that the NYPD is investigating a complaint of reckless endangerment. There is no question in my mind that the action of flying this machine over a crowded NYC street is irresponsible and reckless. Had someone been injured, I believe the action of flying this quadcopter over a NYC street would be prosecutable and also make for a nice civil lawsuit. I may sound pessimistic, but that’s my next prediction – that unintentionally, some idiot will injure someone because they are irresponsibly flying over people.
I think it is ok to take risks with one’s own skin, but when you fly over people with a machine that could fall out of the air due to any number of causes – you are putting the people below at unreasonable risk. Any MultiRotor, no matter the components – or cost, may fall out of the sky unpredictably at any moment. I’ve seen it happen on numerous occasions and it has happened to me. That’s why they should never be flown over people.
Here is a link to the original story.
