NTSB releases final report on 2024 drone crash that injured 7-year-old at Lake Eola
ORLANDO, Fla. —
The National Transportation Safety Board released its final report detailing what went wrong during a drone show at Lake Eola in 2024 that injured a 7-year-old.
Dozens of two-pound drones fell from the sky during the holiday event almost two years ago.
According to the NTSB, “Drone show software (DSS) revealed that the uploaded show center position was incorrect, resulting in an approximate 5-meter (16.4-ft) displacement from the intended location. This error caused the system to assign incorrect aircraft to flight paths. In addition, the show heading had not been entered correctly and was rotated by about 7°. These cumulative errors resulted in crossing paths and collisions during takeoff with flight paths closer to spectators than intended.”
Furthermore, when the show center location was updated, only 498 drones were selected rather than 500, which resulted in two drones with different show center positions than the others.
As a result, several small unmanned aircraft (sUA) entered the audience, which resulted in a serious injury to a spectator, the NTSB said.
“The remote pilot-in-command’s (RPIC’s) failure to locate the drone show center position over the physical location of the sUA, which resulted in multiple sUA colliding during the initial lift and subsequent loss of control,” the report states. “Contributing to the accident was the RPIC’s inappropriate geofence that was contrary to company procedures and an incorrect show heading which moved the show closer to the spectators. Also contributing to the accident was the operator’s lack of show oversight which allowed for multiple individual errors to go undetected before show start.”
The report says the system used relies on precise spatial alignment and inconsistencies caused multiple drones to crash.