Drone hits power line, causes power outage in CA

[ejtttje]

Affected 1600 people for about 3 hours:
City of Mountain View - News Details

No idea what model it was from the tiny blurry mess of a photo they posted with the article.

Watch out for those power lines! Sunset is currently 8:29 in Mountain View, so this wasn't night flight, but still don't rely on the video feed to see power/telephone lines, they don't show up until its too late.

I've developed a rule of thumb that cables are like roaches: if you manage to spot one, there's probably a bunch more nearby about to jump out at you. Hmm, that might more like velociraptors rather than roaches.

Particularly since we've had reports on the forums of flying near a high voltage line screwing up the drone electronics and zapping the navigation, making a crash into them even more likely if you get anywhere close by. So yeah, definitely velociraptors.

 

[4wd]

I'm struggling to see how a plastic drone shorted anything out let alone directly broke something.
The picture looks like stock shot of burnt blob.

 

[ejtttje]

Well, there is a decent bit of metal in most drones, e.g. the heatsink on the bottom of a mavic. Or the physical collision could be enough to break something I guess, such as an insulator or connector. There's a physics leverage trick where a small force in the middle of a long suspended cable is amplified to a larger force at the ends (depending on how tight it's been pulled, less slack means more sideways force at the ends needed to balance any orthogonal weight). But yeah it does still seem unlikely though.

I would hope given the picture on the post that they actually have the drone remains and not just speculating that a transformer blew around the same time someone was flying a drone and therefore blaming the drone...

 

[geigy]

Man, that thing was burned to a cinder. Probably a fire on the ground. If they can fish out an intact SD chip, they may be able to trace the owner. I hope they throw the book at him.

I really hope there is not stampede to pass more laws restricting where we can fly - it's already hard enough to figure out which parks, etc, have their own unposted rules prohibiting drones!

 

[Thastinger]

An ungrounded drone hit a power line and did this? From the picture, whatever the object was grounded itself between the high tension wire(s) and the ground wire. I'm not aware of a drone large enough to cover that span since those wires are typically separated by 4 feet or more.

 

[geigy]

I agree with those of you who doubt the propeller cut the line directly, or caused it to arc somehow. It's possible though, if the drone got caught in a way that the propeller was grazing the line in such a way as to allow the props to continue spinning so as to cause maximum damage.

The lines can arc if the are swung far enough to touch. A trapped drone could go into an oscillation that caused two wires to touch, leading to a break in the wire. Or the owner could have caused an oscillation by rocking the controls back and forth, to try to break the drone loose.The result in either case would be a ground fire where the wire contacts the ground.

Maybe a more likely one is using a pellet gun or other gun to try to shoot the drone down, and hitting the wire instead.

Unlikely? Maybe. There are probably a bunch of other ways this could happen. Maybe we'll find out more, or they may arrest the guy and get his story.

 

[Pathogen]

dot gov, just lol...

 

[Mavman]

Just a thought - but if somebody had an anti-drone agenda, it would be relatively easy to purposefully do bad sh** in order to help various regulations to be passed.

 

[Pathogen]

Just a thought - but if somebody had an anti-drone agenda, it would be relatively easy to purposefully do bad sh** in order to help various regulations to be passed.

On one side you have regulations. On the other side (and perhaps more relevant) is the public sentiment.

 

[halley]

don't rely on the video feed to see power/telephone lines, they don't show up until its too late

That's the truth.

Recently I flew out along a mountain highway, and I had scouted the area as being clear of lines all through the gorge between two ridges. Before landing, I flew past my home point and upward so I could get a nice view of the little park pullout I was in. I pan around in what looked like empty air, and suddenly I nearly crapped myself... I must have been within a few feet of three lines! I could not even be sure there were ONLY three lines, so I very carefully pivoted and looked up and down to see if it was safe to ascend or descend. If I had panicked and shot upward or downward, I might have hit something and made everything worse.

 

[Lake_Flyer]

That's the truth.

Recently I flew out along a mountain highway, and I had scouted the area as being clear of lines all through the gorge between two ridges. Before landing, I flew past my home point and upward so I could get a nice view of the little park pullout I was in. I pan around in what looked like empty air, and suddenly I nearly crapped myself... I must have been within a few feet of three lines! I could not even be sure there were ONLY three lines, so I very carefully pivoted and looked up and down to see if it was safe to ascend or descend. If I had panicked and shot upward or downward, I might have hit something and made everything worse.

I know it's lame to mention, sorry, but that's exactly why we should always fly VLOS. The smaller the bird the closer it should stay. VLOS with a mavic means 200m at most (100m is legal in my country). You see every power line with the naked eye at that distance, but not on the screen.

 

[Lake_Flyer]

I'm struggling to see how a plastic drone shorted anything out let alone directly broke something.
The picture looks like stock shot of burnt blob.

carbon is a great conductor. Just go stand in a thunderstorm with a carbon fishing rod and see what I mean (Don't! You'll get hit by lightning)

 

[4wd]

carbon is a great conductor. Just go stand in a thunderstorm with a carbon fishing rod and see what I mean (Don't! You'll get hit by lightning)

Which carbon is that then.

 

[halley]

I know it's lame to mention, sorry, but that's exactly why we should always fly VLOS. The smaller the bird the closer it should stay. VLOS with a mavic means 200m at most (100m is legal in my country). You see every power line with the naked eye at that distance, but not on the screen.

While I agree in principle, I will say the lines were obscured by the foliage in the higher elevations in the background, from both ground and FPV vantages. It was only once I got between the foliage and cables and turned around that I saw them against the sky.

 

[Lake_Flyer]

While I agree in principle, I will say the lines were obscured by the foliage in the higher elevations in the background, from both ground and FPV vantages. It was only once I got between the foliage and cables and turned around that I saw them against the sky.

Thanks, I understand now.
And to add to that, even flying VLOS it would probably have been difficult to determine the distance from the bird to those power lines, if you even spotted them. The mavic also tend to blend into the background and in the blink of an eye, or quickly glancing at the screen, it's easy to lose visual track of it.

Why did they make it airforce grey instead of a good color for visual flying? Why do the front red lights turn off by default if you switch on the camera (I changed that immediately to always ON)?
I see now (new mavic user here) the VLOS flying pilot was never DJI's main target for the mavic.

 

[Thastinger]

I know it's lame to mention, sorry, but that's exactly why we should always fly VLOS. The smaller the bird the closer it should stay. VLOS with a mavic means 200m at most (100m is legal in my country). You see every power line with the naked eye at that distance, but not on the screen.

Kinda like people who buy a Ferrari should always drive 55.

 

[erkme73]

Having worked with power companies for nearly 20 years, specializing in HV transmission and distribution equipment, it would seem we're not getting the full story here.

A feeder that powers 1600 homes would be running anywhere form 12kV to 34.5kV. At those voltages, given the separation of conductors, a drone simply would not have had the wingspan to 'ground' or cross phases. And if it did, the SCADA system would have cleared the fault with repeated closures of the breaker on the line.

If the distribution system is overloaded, lacks maintenance, or is outdated, and something as simple as a hobby drone can knock the feeder out, then the problem isn't with the drone - but rather the shoddy condition of the equipment supporting those 1600 homes.

Furthermore, my vacation home is in the middle of BFE in middle-TN. It is not uncommon for a fallen tree to knock power out to hundreds (sometimes thousands) of people for 10+ hours at a time. In fact, just last week, my house was without power for 27 hours. The culprit? A tree that knocked down several utility poles.

Point is, it happens. Whether it's nature, acts of God, or neglect on an aging system - our power system will periodically leave us in the dark. To blame this guy, and come down hard on the hobby is absolutely predictable - but 100% inappropriate.

 

[danman999]

Having worked with power companies for nearly 20 years, specializing in HV transmission and distribution equipment, it would seem we're not getting the full story here.

A feeder that powers 1600 homes would be running anywhere form 12kV to 34.5kV. At those voltages, given the separation of conductors, a drone simply would not have had the wingspan to 'ground' or cross phases. And if it did, the SCADA system would have cleared the fault with repeated closures of the breaker on the line.

If the distribution system is overloaded, lacks maintenance, or is outdated, and something as simple as a hobby drone can knock the feeder out, then the problem isn't with the drone - but rather the shoddy condition of the equipment supporting those 1600 homes.

Furthermore, my vacation home is in the middle of BFE in middle-TN. It is not uncommon for a fallen tree to knock power out to hundreds (sometimes thousands) of people for 10+ hours at a time. In fact, just last week, my house was without power for 27 hours. The culprit? A tree that knocked down several utility poles.

Point is, it happens. Whether it's nature, acts of God, or neglect on an aging system - our power system will periodically leave us in the dark. To blame this guy, and come down hard on the hobby is absolutely predictable - but 100% inappropriate.

Yes, the whole world is conspiring against drones! It is completely appropriate to be clueless with two joysticks, thinking they are masters of the skies!

 

[AlanTheBeast]

I can't conceive of anything in a grid system that can't withstand a full speed impact by a small drone. These systems have to withstand high winds, ice, rain, cold, heat, bird strikes and on and on and on. These systems are extremely robust.

From the article:

According to eyewitness statements, the suspect flew a common quadcopter drone into nearby power lines. The drone burst into flames after getting too close to the high-voltage wires, crashing to the ground and melting on the street below.​

That statement above is ambiguous. "Into them" or "too close"? Which?

At a limit, the electrical field may have been strong enough to generate currents that could cause the Li-ion battery to burn.

And even if it did that should not cause damage that would need hours to repair - if any damage at all - to the grid system.

At worst it might have triggered something that was about to fail in any case.

 

[PT_Mavic]

Watch out for those power lines! Sunset is currently 8:29 in Mountain View, so this wasn't night flight, but still don't rely on the video feed to see power/telephone lines, they don't show up until its too late.

When I was learning to fly (real) airplanes a hundred years ago, my instructor gave me one of many simple lessons that might save my life: do NOT look for power lines, look for the shadows of their poles to warn you about the lines. Simple, effective.

And just incidentally, I lived in Mountain View for 17 years, but abandoned the Silicon Valley rat-race for the woods before 'Google' and 'Facebook' were words. It's changed just a bit since then; should have kept the house as a rental instead of dumping it.