A Christmas drone show in Perth this week encountered some technical difficulties as several illuminated drones fell from the sky, taking light sources away from the spectacle.
As reported by Nine News, the City of Perth has blamed the mishap on “technical issues”. The larger event, ‘Summer Nights City of Lights’, was created to illuminate Christmas iconography in the sky.
At one point, the ‘City of Perth’ logo and lettering was illuminated above the city, along with Santa Claus in a train and Santa in his sleigh.
Drone shows are an interesting alternative to fireworks displays, as they create less noise and the units can (most of the time) be reused. It’s not Perth’s first illuminated drone show, but it is perhaps the first time drones have malfunctioned during the spectacle.
The highly-anticipated City Of Light Christmas drone show didn’t go exactly as planned last night…
Multiple drones began malfunctioning and falling from the sky throughout, crashing into the Swan River below as crowds watched on. #9News pic.twitter.com/oThMMvUEYf
— 9News Perth (@9NewsPerth) November 21, 2022
“I accept that the drone show on Sunday night fell short of expectations,” City of Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas said, as reported by Nine News.
“There is a reason why there is such a strict enforcement of the safety zone around this technology… Things can go wrong with technology of this kind.”
Protocols set by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Australia’s authority on drone regulation, were in place during the show.
Nobody was hurt during the incident and, thankfully, the drones fell into the Swan River.
Joshua Van Ross, the managing director of Drone Sky Show, the company that planned this event, later revealed that 50 of the 500 drones had malfunctioned during the event, as reported by WA Today.
“If there is any wind interference drones do hit each other, that does happen, propellers snap, there are things that go wrong … two to three drones [falling] per show is actually normal … last night was not normal,” Ross told WA Today.
Each drone apparently costs about $2,000, which would run the malfunctioning drone cost up to $100,000.
A review is underway into the Christmas drone show and the missing drones were retrieved from Perth’s Swan River on Monday.