Idiots at a football match

[wco81]

A small balloon with 100g of fentanyl can be deadly. 2mg of it can kill. The method of delivery is quite simple.

Also quite simple to do.

I won't go into the details of how in either case, it's easy enough for someone to find on their own.

OK, so why is a stadium full of fans more at risk than say targeting downtown of a big city at rush hour?

Or flying over highways full of bumper to bumper traffic with a lethal payload?

 

[Vic Moss]

Fair enuf, but speaking of an extreme that never has happened is a fentanyl attack.

Correct. But there I was actually quoting the FBI.

They plan in the extreme.

 

[Vic Moss]

OK, so why is a stadium full of fans more at risk than say targeting downtown of a big city at rush hour?

Or flying over highways full of bumper to bumper traffic with a lethal payload?

Concentration of people. Both of your other examples are still concentrated, but not 30,000+ people inside something the size of a stadium. You can do a lot more harm with that kind of concentration.

Also, this is one reason why the RID requirement will be part of OOP flights over "open-air assemblies".

 

[EtheB]

It isn't fear of a drone dropping in on someone, though that is a real risk. It is more about someone being stupid enough to make the flight also being stupid enough to crash the drone through some hair brain notion he could fly through a doorway over peoples heads. Once you cross the stupid threshold, not much imagination to see them doing truly dangerous things.

Agree wholeheartedly!

 

[Don Testme]

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.

Thanks for supporting my position.

 

[Don Testme]

Minor mess? Tell that to the little kid in England that got her eye sliced and lost it to a drone prop.

Tell that to my 2 friends that lost their parents in a head on car collision. All human activities can be dangerous to human life and limb.

 

[Vic Moss]

Thanks for supporting my position.

I didn't.

 

[Heavydpj]

Postponements or reactions like this are a symptom of societies over active imagination, brought on by the invention TV stations dedicated to only news and repeating that news constantly over and over 24/7. We have become a meek and fearful society.

Or perhaps they simply understood the very real hazards of a 1.4kg object falling from the sky at 18 m/sec and killing a player or spectator.