Drone collides with Seattle Ferris Wheel, busts through plastic table

Seattle police: "There were no injuries. There was no damage to the wheel."

Read the whole story

 

[KGFish]

I really think the registration is going to be necessary. Too many people doing too much stupid shit to just allow it to continue as is. There need to be some serious repercussions for screwing up a drone flight - a large fine of a few thousand dollars should start to get people to take this seriously.

 

[Korpo]

This is why we can't have nice things.

 

[Nilt]

I have to sa6that while I am not generally inclined toward increased regulation, this is getting out of hand. For decades, model aircraft have been flown safely by enthusiasts. Sadly, we now have a time of the wid3r public flying things which they do not fully grasp. Flight is inherently more complex, and potentially dangerous, than anything the general public has dealt with before. It's clear that a few reckless individuals simply refuse to play by the rules commonly accepted in hobbiest groups. Thus, regulations are required.

Its too bad, but simply must be done.

 

[billyok]

I'm at the point where, if I see an Ars headline that begins with the word "Drone," I reflexively cringe before I read the rest of the headline.

With that said...

Nilt[/url]":3ux3zgqb]Otherwise, it needs to be a criminal act to violate the rules and jail time needs to be mandatory.

...I don't think we need to cram our jails with yet more people whose crime is more stupid than malicious. Let's not fight nonsense with nonsense.

 

[Myntan]

Honestly, just a mandatory 24-48 hours in jail would stop most offenders.

No one can afford missing much work. We only get 10-12 vacation days (starting out) in a year. If I knew flying a drone illegally would cost me a night out two in jail I wouldn't own one.

No need for weeks or months when no one gets hurt and no property is damage... And it wouldn't create a crowded jail system

 

[SirBedwyr]

The counter point is that registration won't actually do much. I'm still highly uncertain about what the endgame will look like. A crash like this is probably emblematic of what an average crash will look like, a nuisance coupled with property damage that could sometimes also involve injuries, usually not life threatening.

Midair collisions at this size is still unknown though I'm impressed with simulation work being done by Virginia Tech to gauge the effect of a largish 1 meter quadcopter going through a turbofan engine.

The worry by most of us involved in aviation is the promise of a higher accident rate and a much higher number of accidents due simply to the numbers being flown. Especially when we consider the potential numbers Google, Amazon, and WalMart want to fly. That leaps from any normal sense of accident rate I'm familiar with and gets into rates on the order or defect rates engineers deal with in manufacturing. That's... shocking to to think about to be honest.

And the FAA has nearly zero resources to deal with this. The agency was built to handle manned aviation. The high value of a pilot's certificate provides leverage over the airman population. Inspectors exist, but in General Aviation ramp check frequency is... I can't recall but I think it's been decreasing. Most resources are dedicated to protecting the flying public on airlines. Handling the volume of drones to come is almost certainly not in the cards. Most of the time they rely and hope to rely on fellow aviators reporting bad actors. That and accidents have been very common ways of starting enforcement actions.

To make things worse we have a new population of fools coming into the hobby along with law abiding folks. I think it was Cyrus who was making the case that most problems will be solved by adequate education of inexperienced but fearful responsible new pilots. After seeing several links to YouTube videos of DJI pilots crowing about getting their quads to 2000’ + and looking at the fetid comments cheering them on with a very strong "up yours" attitude, my opinion of humanity was brought back down a number of notches and I said to myself "oh yeah, entitled idiots". And now they're flying. They were flying before, but commonly removed themselves from the gene pool. Aviation is very unforgiving of foolishness. Now, however, fools are flying and they have no skin in the game.

So now what? We have fools flying (please don't take offense all responsible RC pilots) without fear of injury to themselves, an agency completely incapable of enforcing something this size, and a new industry chomping to serve up as many of these machines as possible. To be honest I'm not sure. It'll be weird. Maybe, possibly tragic.

 

[Bondi Surfer]

How long until it's laser-equipped drones aiming at aeroplanes?

 

[andrewsc0]

I'm agreed with those in favor of registration. The simple fact that these morons can crash their drones, causing property damage or worse, and walk away calls for the need for registration.

It's unfortunate that this goes against my own belief that a drone, in this sense (not a military drone), is a fun hobby for all involved. But to many people are making headlines like these commonplace.

All things considered poor drone piloting, like mentioned in this article, is now common place and perhaps no longer news worthy.

In fact, by making it news, there is the small chance that people are attempting daring drone footage for that very reason, similar to the fact that once streakers were no longer shown on television during sporting events, the amount of streakers declined.

 

[JadziaUsoo]

I do think the US is going about this in the wrong way, it's not the drones you need to register, but the idiots that are flying these things. As previously stated before hobbyists having flying model aeroplanes for the last 100years, and generally are responsible citizens. The problem is the idiots being allowed to buy them. I would propose that any drove over a arbitrary weight I.e 1kg should require a FAA Drone flying license similar to flying a real aircraft before they can be purchased in a shop, I.e present license then can buy, no license no buy, smaller database to manage, and easier than not having to deal with multiple Chinese manufacturers etc. Maybe get the NSA to do it as they are good at spying on the people, give them something legitimate to use there massive SQL databases on

 

[shevaberg]

Korpo[/url]":10gnuobv]This is why we can't have nice things.

Seriously you got a down vote. . Holy crap. . Must have been the owner of the drone... you stated the obvious.. it's because of idiots like this the rest of the people will have to jumps through hoops

 

[Takur]

Soon we will have fighter drones and anti-drones deployed in a public place near you.

But seriously, registration should be considered to prevent this kind of things. Oh well! I think the politicians are still waiting for that big thing to happen before they get their acts together.

 

[AM16]

I can see certain party using this as a freedom campaign for pandering to the crazies.

Just wait for it.


There's a better fix for this: Don't sell them. This is not a new thing. There's been gasoline helicopters around for a long time. The fact that the drones are cheap, ubiquitous and can record is the main reason this is happening.

 

[Robo_Leader]

As somebody who lives in the area, I just want to ask: Is there some kind of flight school for these things built into their controls that you have to do when you operate it for the first time? I don't want to start seeing new regulations or a national registry of owners of hobbyist RC planes and copters, but the trouble people are causing with them due to an inability to keep them under control is not OK.

Even with a training program, though, if people keep doing crap like this, we are going to see regulations. According to the manager at the Wheel, the area is a no-fly zone, something the pilot either wasn't aware of, or just didn't care about. There's an issue of personal responsibility here, something that you can't force people to have. Jumping through hoops to fly a small RC copter shouldn't be a thing, but it's starting to feel like an eventuality.

 

[AliceWonder]

Clavernicus MacJorgenstern[/url]":2g9acuof]Oh yeah, we certainly have to register all of these flying model r/c aircraft right away, at the federal level no less, because for crying out loud somebody might have a near miss or god forbid get knocked out at a parade.

or interfere with the ability to fight forest fires, as happened in Southern California.

 

[AliceWonder]

Clavernicus MacJorgenstern[/url]":2a7jk7yr]
But of course, while we're on the subject of national regulations in the interest of public safety, hell no don't even think about regulating guns, because after all guns don't kill people, and 2nd amendment, and castle doctrine, and stand your ground, and NRA, right? I mean Columbine and Sandy Hook and all the other gun massacres are trivial compared to the extreme risk of unregulated drone flight.

/angry rant

Guns are regulated. And they have nothing to do with the price of tea in China.

 

[talon_262]

AliceWonder[/url]":13m01790]

Clavernicus MacJorgenstern[/url]":13m01790]Oh yeah, we certainly have to register all of these flying model r/c aircraft right away, at the federal level no less, because for crying out loud somebody might have a near miss or god forbid get knocked out at a parade.

or interfere with the ability to fight forest fires, as happened in Southern California.

More than once, at that.

 

[CommanderJameson]

Nilt[/url]":3qvh3l3z]

KGFish[/url]":3qvh3l3z]I really think the registration is going to be necessary. Too many people doing too much stupid shit to just allow it to continue as is. There need to be some serious repercussions for screwing up a drone flight - a large fine of a few thousand dollars should start to get people to take this seriously.

I don't think even a few thousand is enough. Make it start at $10,000 and go up from there. Otherwise, it needs to be a criminal act to violate the rules and jail time needs to be mandatory. You can't do it any other way; people who flaunt existing rules will just pay the fines and continue flaunting the safety guidelines.

"Flout", goddamnit! "Flout"!

 

[AliceWonder]

pahles[/url]":31rveuio]

KGFish[/url]":31rveuio]I really think the registration is going to be necessary. Too many people doing too much stupid shit to just allow it to continue as is. There need to be some serious repercussions for screwing up a drone flight - a large fine of a few thousand dollars should start to get people to take this seriously.

And what if it is a home built drone which was not registered? How are you going to track down the owner? If it can not be enforced, registration is not the answer.

I imagine the fine for not registering it would be pretty high if you get caught, and if the problem persists, there will be law enforcement units looking for unregistered drones.

 

[mark ifi]

Hmm, this gives me a great idea for a startup. Gather unemployed people, give them drone licenses, offer clients flights in illegal places for a fee, have your guys take the two day jail time, rotate your crew to avoid repeat offences.

Myntyn[/url]"g26kbs6].

No one can afford missing much work. We only get 10-12 vacation days (starting out) in a year. If I knew flying a drone illegally would cost me a night out two in jail I

 

[Bush Ranger]

Bondi Surfer[/url]":20es9wx3]How long until it's laser-equipped drones aiming at aeroplanes?

You probably just gave some idiot an idea.

 

[AliceWonder]

Bush Ranger[/url]":34ab5v1v]

Bondi Surfer[/url]":34ab5v1v]How long until it's laser-equipped drones aiming at aeroplanes?

You probably just gave some idiot an idea.

Why are you calling me an idiot?

 

[AdamM]

pahles[/url]":vfjqeklm]

KGFish[/url]":vfjqeklm]I really think the registration is going to be necessary. Too many people doing too much stupid shit to just allow it to continue as is. There need to be some serious repercussions for screwing up a drone flight - a large fine of a few thousand dollars should start to get people to take this seriously.

And what if it is a home built drone which was not registered? How are you going to track down the owner? If it can not be enforced, registration is not the answer.

That would be an issue if home built drones made up a reasonable amount of drones. They don't.

Not to mention all of these incidents of stupidity tend to happen with off the shelf drones. Not homemade ones.

 

[sarusa]

Always a couple jackholes like this who ruin it for everyone else. Like the Tesla S autopilot.

Or anything else where we once had a modicum of expectation that the people using it could self regulate and wouldn't be complete f@#$tards. And most aren't. But there's always enough who are.

 

[chanman819]

billyok[/url]":3l7svjsj]I'm at the point where, if I see an Ars headline that begins with the word "Drone," I reflexively cringe before I read the rest of the headline.

With that said...

Nilt[/url]":3l7svjsj]Otherwise, it needs to be a criminal act to violate the rules and jail time needs to be mandatory.

...I don't think we need to cram our jails with yet more people whose crime is more stupid than malicious. Let's not fight nonsense with nonsense.

I'm a big proponent of flogging or indentured service (I think those are normally categorized as community service)

 

[Kharma]

billyok[/url]":ixtmetpu]I'm at the point where, if I see an Ars headline that begins with the word "Drone," I reflexively cringe before I read the rest of the headline.

With that said...

Nilt[/url]":ixtmetpu]Otherwise, it needs to be a criminal act to violate the rules and jail time needs to be mandatory.

...I don't think we need to cram our jails with yet more people whose crime is more stupid than malicious. Let's not fight nonsense with nonsense.

We could always resort to corporal punishment again for crimes of stupidity. Six swats of the cane to the backside and you might start thinking twice before doing something stupid and it doesn't take up any space in the jails.

 

[thekaj]

OligarchyAmbulance[/url]":4bzupd5s]

AdamM[/url]":4bzupd5s]

pahles[/url]":4bzupd5s]

KGFish[/url]":4bzupd5s]I really think the registration is going to be necessary. Too many people doing too much stupid shit to just allow it to continue as is. There need to be some serious repercussions for screwing up a drone flight - a large fine of a few thousand dollars should start to get people to take this seriously.

And what if it is a home built drone which was not registered? How are you going to track down the owner? If it can not be enforced, registration is not the answer.

That would be an issue if home built drones made up a reasonable amount of drones. They don't.

Not to mention all of these incidents of stupidity tend to happen with off the shelf drones. Not homemade ones.

Sorry, but you're completely incorrect. Take a quick Google search and you'll understand that most multicopters are home built. But yes, you're correct that the people crashing them and flying illegally are buying them off the shelf.

Do you have any figures on the homebuilt drones? I found this guestimate on the number of off-the-shelf drones being in the millions. IDK, I have a hard time believing that there would be millions more homebuilt drones out there, as it seems like the skies would literally be buzzing with them.

Then again, if you agree that the people who are crashing them are the ones who buy the off-the-shelf models, then it's probably a moot point. The claim was that registration wouldn't work, because it wouldn't cover the homemade drones. But if they're not the ones doing the crashing (which seems like a fair assumption), then registration WOULD work. Could someone's unregistered homemade drone crash and cause damage? Sure. But if 9 times out of 10, it's a registered drone that can be tracked back to its owner, that seems like a pretty good system.

 

[MatthewSleeman]

You wanna know why they're going with the regulation of drones route? It's easy and it can't step on anyone's rights. I'm is Australia but I'm guessing there's a similar program in the US where you pay someone some money and they etch a number in something for you in ink that only appears under ultra-violet light and the number is entered into a national database, if it gets stolen they can use the number to return it to you.

It wouldn't be all that difficult to force all drones to have one of these numbers as part of the purchase process

 

[_fluffy]

Well, being in Seattle narrows it down to only a few dozen thousand possible clueless/selfish/Dunning-Kruger-valley tech workers...

 

[argamond]

All this is currently accidental albeit idiotic damage

Imagine what will happen when there is an incident with deliberate, malicious intent. When (not if) such an event occurs, there will be so much more than simply registration on the mind of your legislators