UK - Severn Bridge shuts after drone flown from the top

[SpinItUp]

BBC News - Severn Bridge shuts after drone flown from the top

[Edit]
These height junkies are now armed (had Christmas prezzies) with drones, not just selfisticks


put severn bridge in Twitter search bar to bring up loads of tweets

Bristol Live: were there!

 

[4wd]

It's rather bizarre they have majored on the drone aspect, I suspect this is one of a group of youtubers who try out-do each other by climbing tall buildings and cranes, typically outside working hours and during maintenance work.

Typically the footage is captured by gopro and a drone circling round themselves at the top.

 

[FoxhallGH]

At least this time, the Police have a perpetrator, arrested at the scene - with a Drone!

 

[old man mavic]

At least this time, the Police have a perpetrator, arrested at the scene - with a Drone!

i suspect the poor drone will get the blame for letting the perpetrator fly it

 

[Konquest]

This bridge is about 10mins from me, quite windy at all times, lucky drone

 

[FoxhallGH]

There's stories out now about the BBC sensationalising the story by mentioning the drone. It looks like the bridge was closed because a young man climbed a tower - and he had a drone with him (presumably he wanted to take some pic's when he got to the top). The bridge was not closed due to a drone being flown over it ...

 

[Konquest]

Some innocent person will soon be made an example of after the airport situation

 

[Asgard]

I know it's naughty, but i'll bet there there isn't a full size pilot alive who hasn't looked down on that and thought well my reg is on the underside and if I just switch off my XPDR.............

 

[Peter Hughes]

I know it's naughty, but i'll bet there there isn't a full size pilot alive who hasn't looked down on that and thought well my reg is on the underside and if I just switch off my XPDR.............

Does that mean the small size pilots don’t think that?

 

[Asgard]

I dunno Pete, you tell me

 

[Peter Hughes]

I dunno Pete, you tell me

Sorry mate, just my bad attempt at humour....no insult intended. It was too much of a temptation to home in on your use of the phrase “full size pilots “. Take care & catch you later.

 

[zocalo]

It's rather bizarre they have majored on the drone aspect, I suspect this is one of a group of youtubers who try out-do each other by climbing tall buildings and cranes, typically outside working hours and during maintenance work.

Typically the footage is captured by gopro and a drone circling round themselves at the top.

Pretty sure this is what it was too. I can't imagine a potential suicide would want to video the occassion, let alone think of taking a drone along for the purpose. It might make for an interesting "focus follow" video from a technical perspective though... My money would be that the drone would most likely lose track and go into a hover before augering in to the river, then eventually RTH when the batteries started to run low.

If you want footage of the Severn bridges, any remotely sane drone pilot is going to fly from the shore with no risk to life, limb, or liberty anyway. Other than complying the 50m and VLOS rules the bridges are not within an NFZ and there plenty of suitable places to legally launch and fly a drone. From personal experience of doing so it does tend to get pretty windy though.

I chalk it up to the legacy of Gatwick, and fully expect the media drone hysteria to continue through 2019.

 

[FoxhallGH]

I chalk it up to the legacy of Gatwick, and fully expect the media drone hysteria to continue through 2019.

2019 new year resolution - I'm buying shares in anti-drone companies!

 

[JDawg]

There's stories out now about the BBC sensationalising the story by mentioning the drone. It looks like the bridge was closed because a young man climbed a tower - and he had a drone with him (presumably he wanted to take some pic's when he got to the top). The bridge was not closed due to a drone being flown over it ...

Kind of speaks to how out of control the drone hysteria is becoming.

 

[gnirtS]

People climb the tower and the bridge is closed. Doesn't matter if its a drone or a gopro - the fact is theres a person, unsecured, hundreds of feet above the major motorway and THATS why they close it.
The drone aspect is meaningless but does give the police another criminal offence to charge them with.

 

[zocalo]

The drone aspect is meaningless but does give the police another criminal offence to charge them with.

AFAICT, it *is* meaningless, including to the police. The only charge I've seen in the media is "Causing a public disturbance", which is pretty much the go to for this kind of thing, including whenever protestors climb fences, stage sit-ins, chain/glue themselves to stuff, and so on, and I've not seen any mention of the drone actually being flown, so it's entirely possible it never even made it out of the camera bag. Unfortunately, that the drone was even mentioned in the media coverage at all means that it's probably not so meaningless in the public perception of drone owners.

 

[Dustymagic]

Perception is everything. The truth matters less. (You only need to read a few of Trump's ramblings to know that!)

I owned a Rottweiler and when the UK press got hold of a story relating to a Rottweiler bite they immediately linked it to the dog used in the film, The Omen, giving them the title "Devil Dogs". When I challenged the local newspaper editor that the figures for dog attacks showed that small dogs like Jack Russels' and other small terriers made up 90% of the figures, he dismissed my complaint saying that he knew that, but small dogs don't sell papers!

Linking problems to drones is an easy story and they don't even need to substantiate it, just making a tenuous connection is enough. Our job is to try and create good newsworthy stories to support what we do.

I also suggest that we keep a lookout for anyone misusing a drone and if we can't educate them to be responsible, then maybe we need to be the ones calling the cops if they are genuinely causing a danger!

 

[ataraxia]

Next up, we'll have somebody climbing the Tower of London who flew a drone once a few years ago and therefore all drones should be banned.

 

[Endeavor]

Drones are gateway products which eventually will get one hooked on climbing, base jumping and skinny skiing.

 

[Patmaherjfm]

Drones are gateway products which eventually will get one hooked on climbing, base jumping and skinny skiing.

Their is some truth in this, I have allways been a climber, but I've climbed a few trees to retrieve a drone I probably wouldn't have attempted otherwise