A drone at Ogaki Park in Gifu Prefecture on Saturday (November 4) spun out of control, injuring six people.
The 89 cm by 50 cm machine was scattering sweets onto a crowd as part of a robotics showcase when the incident occurred, according to the Japan Times.
Those hit by the drone suffered minor injuries, such as scratches to their foreheads and shoulders.
Police were investigating the incident.
Source: euronews
It is really sad that news like this make it to the headlines while probably at least 100 people have been injured today in other parts of the world due to manned aeronautical related accidents.
It seems that the general opinion is being pushed towards believing that drone operation must be 100% safe (which is a practical impossibility for all activities in any field)
True…
However – from a purely statistical and safety POV – UAVs that are operating over people can (and perhpas ‘should’) be equpped with emergency parachutes.
This might had helped in this instance – specifically as the Drone was large and powerful enough to support the minor additional weight.
Other safety features regularly meployed nowadays by drones operating either over people or public spaces onclude additional GPS and Command-&-Control RX units – for redundancy in case signals are somehow interefered-with.
And ‘yes’ – for sure its a shame that as with every time there is a Helicopter crash, it draws more attention than does an aircraft.
It as been suggested that there is the innate human fear of being ‘dismembered’ (by a prop) that causes our visceral reaction to accidenst involving slicing-and-dicing propellers: and also why being ‘beheaded’ (Guillotine, Axe, ISIS etc.) is so repugnant to us psychologically.