About that S1000 and the Skier video

[wallix]

A few months back that video surfaced of the S1000 smashing down behind the skier. I couldn't find any info on why it fell. Seems bizarre a S1000 would just drop like a rock. Was there ever a statement made by the film crew?

 

[aljoseph]

I saw that same video but never heard anything more about the cause of the crash.

 

[Ninogiva]

I got very interested in that episode as well, and I could not find any official report. There is a podcast I really enjoy though, called "the multirotor podcast" on itunes which recently featured the accident and elaborated on possible causes. They said the most likely was that with cold weather and all, the pilot mistakenly did not take into account shortened flight times. I tend to agree with this hypothesis, but who knows!

 

[MapMaker53]

Saw something about the extreme cold affecting the battery life. But I think it more likely some sort of mid-air catastrophic mechanical malfunction brought it down. Shortened battery life would just cause it to land, assuming that brand has a RTH or low battery auto-land feature.

 

[Sabalon]

I had heard somewhere (maybe here) that it was acting erratic so it was intentionally grounded before it could harm anyone.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Travis726]

I read somewhere it was due to cold climate.

 

[Mr DroneNut]

Just another way that the media and the haters have to show how " reckless we drone nuts (sorry,I couldn't help myself) are. I wish that we could have a way to show that we all aren't rebels. We have to pay, it seems, for the sins of the other guys. It is the same thing that those of us who rid motorcycles have to contend with. . So sad.

 

[Ninogiva]

I had heard somewhere (maybe here) that it was acting erratic so it was intentionally grounded before it could harm anyone.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

Well that surely was a quick way of grounding it! It almost killed the athlete, I could have thought at a couple of ways of grounding it more safely than that

 

[BigAl07]

That was a professional Commercial Crew and in their protocol (when flying close to John Q. Public) when any erratic unexpected behavior is experienced the pilot is directed to get the aircraft to the ground in the quickest and most practical (safe) way. In other words they had a control issue and the pilot flew the aircraft directly in to the ground. Instead of fighting it and risking allowing it to get over top of the spectators and then losing total control they grounded the aircraft immediately. Even though it caused massive damage to the aircraft no one in the public was in danger or hurt. That story could have gone much differently and I do admit it was way too close to the skier himself but at the end of the day John Q. Public has to be protected at all cost.

 

[ianwood]

It wasn't an S1000. It was an X8. The film crew claimed it became unresponsive and began to move independently as result of RF interference. They therefore engaged the equivalent of a self destruct option. Which is all BS.

Firstly, the drone should never have been in that proximity to the course especially with the skier approaching. Secondly, RF can make a drone unresponsive but it cannot make it move independently. Thirdly, this is why we have RTH.

A much more probable scenario is the batteries experienced a sudden voltage sag as result of an inexperienced crew pushing them too hard in freezing conditions.

 

[Sabalon]

About the only thing I could find about it which they claimed interference
Operator Of UAV At Ski Race May Have Intentionally 'Lawn-Darted' The Drone | Aero-News Network

 

[wallix]

It wasn't an S1000. It was an X8.

It sure was! My mistake.

 

[Reed L]

I remember originally reading that the op didn't consider the temperature and that it had a catastrophic battery failure. I kinda think that them saying that it was intentional, is just a cover up of the actual failure. He didn't consider the extreme cold temp, the battery died sooner then he expected and it came down. So he said that he crashed it on purpose to save his job. Either way he got drones banned from ski events...
Lots of speculation out there and from the way it came down 90° from horizontal, it was obviously dead in the air but here's an article.
Drones banned from World Cup skiing after one nearly falls on racer

Another forums eval of the crash - Broadcast TV UAV nearly hits skier on live TV | Freefly Forum

And here's is a supposed pic of it before the crash