Drone flight over Cork reckless
The flight was one of many now taking place all over Ireland as the majority of operators are not licensed and thereby have no real idea of the dangers being placed upon the unsuspecting public. This particularly applies to flights over populated areas and at night, both of which are not permitted by law.
Too many of these machines are being assembled and programmed for flight by untrained amateurs and so there are no airworthiness guarantees at all. Contrary to what was stated in your paper’s report, there is a serious risk that the operator could lose control of the drone and that a technical failure would take place.
The city is covered with erroneous WiFi signals which are known to affect and cause a loss of signal, therefore control, in these type of drones. Let’s examine the sequence of events which would happen in this situation...
If a battery problem (such as low battery power) occurs then, yes, the drone will begin a descent where the failure occurred. What happens next is that the operator no longer has control as the drone will have reverted to what is known as ‘autonomous flight’. This means that a descent begins into an unknown area where, if you’re lucky, the machine will not make contact with the many buildings, overhead transmission lines etc. in its path. The chances of that happening in a city are slim as there are obviously many more obstacles to collide with than there would be in an open field in the country, for example. So maybe a roof top is struck, the drone is damaged and can no longer fly, so it then rolls off the building and hits a child in a pram. Perhaps it crashes onto a road causing a traffic accident, again injuring people. Oh, and as the drone impacts at some speed with its unfortunate target, it is then highly likely to burst into flames as the NiCad battery which powers the machine would short-circuit and ignite in a manner similar to a flare, before burning up. Now the unfortunate innocent victim is severely injured and the authorities look for the operators Public Liability insurance — only to find out the operator may not have any. (All IAA approved and licensed operators are required to hold PL insurance). I am sure you can imagine a completely different headline in all of the papers if an airplane approaching or departing Cork Airport had come down on Cork city due to the drone being sucked into an aircraft engine intake. This is not just a possible but a very plausible scenario if the operator was flying the drone so high due to ignorance of aviation safety altitudes, or if they lost control.
As a responsible newspaper, and in the interests of objective and balanced reporting, I hope you inform the public of the danger they were subjected to, and still will be, if action is not taken to stop this reckless behaviour.
The public have a right to be informed and to be protected.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
