Narrow Miss for Skier
This story has been making the rounds over the last day or so and it illustrates how, even in a controlled environment, drone flying can be dangerous. When you see the impact of the drone when it hits the ground and think about the forces involved, Marcel Hirscher is a lucky man.
Based on the race director’s comments, pilot error/carelessness played at least a small part in the incident. When we operate on a movie shoot, we carefully plan the area in which we’ll be flying our aerial cinematography operations -- including any known hazards and where we can divert our drone in the event of a malfunction. The operator here may not have had an opportunity to safely bring down the drone, which makes the restrictions and agreed-upon safety margin even more important.