A couple of things.
Yes, that sucked. And we all feel bad for the kid. But it was a racing drone, and it was being flown irresponsibly by the kid's uncle. That was 100% pilot error.
But that is the most extreme drone injury to date. And using the extreme to disqualify the norm isn't a very good strategy.
And lack of similar incidents (to date) are actually an extremely good argument for the safety of drones. There have been 10s (100s?) of millions of drone flights around the world. And it can be counted on your fingers the number of injuries sustained by non-participants. That's an incredibly safety record.
I'm not saying that justifies the actions of idiots, I'm just saying that perspective is everything when discussing drone safety. If we used that same logic with bicycles, we'd be laughed out of every bicycle safety discussion we joined.
And on this, I almost totally disagree.
It was incredibly stupid that play wasn't stopped in the Bengals issue. They knew it was there (thanks for Aerial Armor), yet never relayed that info to the crew on the field.
When an incursion like London or Cincinnati instances happen, the facility has to think of attendee safety first and foremost.
I've had this very discussion with our local FBI agent. I met him when I was legally flying at a Monday Night Football Preseason Broncos game, and we're been able to sit down afterwards and talk about these things.
Incursion issues are two fold with stadium security.
First is actual. It would be incredibly easy for someone to launch a drone carrying a dangerous cargo (fentanyl, C4, etc.) close enough that would prevent security forces from doing something about it. This is the single largest fear when it comes to what First Responders train for in the U.S.
The second is largely theoretical. When I flew the Broncos game, NFL security and the FBI came out to make sure I was flying safely and legally. Their second great fear is a panic situation where someone sees the drone and panics. That could quite possibly create a dangerous situation where people would get hurt in the ensuing melee. It can be argued that situation has been fostered by the paranoia spread in the media. But even if it has, it's a real issue.
So no, this has nothing to do with us being a "meek and fearful society." It's a real thing. Dismissing it as a societal issue does nothing to help the situation.
These types of activity are categorized three ways. These people are either clueless, careless, or criminal.
I think we all agree that no set of laws or regulations will stop the criminal mindset. By definition they are not going to stop just because a law tells them to. So they're not really a logical part of any discussion like this.
It's the careless and clueless that are the major issue. And I'd consider both the London issue and the Cincinnati issue careless of clueless. Although the Bengals guy said he knew it was illegal and didn't care. So he would also fall into the criminal category. And based on some of his other YT videos, this describes him to a "T".
Publicly stopping play in these instances serves two purposes. First, it creates even more publicity and makes even more people aware of the issues. Education the clueless and careless can help prevent more of this. Second, but even more important, it gives security the best chance to get the situation under control.
Just like snowghost, using extremes to illustrate the norm defeats the purpose of the argument. Without logic (in either argument), the presenter of that argument loses credibility.
