{"id":281392,"date":"2026-06-29T18:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T18:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/281392\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T18:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T18:25:09","slug":"nypd-drone-crashes-catches-fire-at-brooklyn-world-cup-fan-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/281392\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPD drone crashes, catches fire at Brooklyn World Cup Fan Zone"},"content":{"rendered":"

DUMBO \u2014 A New York Police Department drone, which had been hovering near the FIFA World Cup Fan Zone<\/a> in Brooklyn Bridge Park last week, crashed to the ground and caught fire.<\/p>\n

According to the New York City Fire Department, just after 9:40 p.m. on Tuesday, June 23, the drone crashed at 1 Water St. near Emily Warren Roebling Plaza, site of the Fan Zone. The drone came down south of the Fan Zone\u2019s main entrance.<\/p>\n

The soccer match between Panama and Croatia had wrapped up around 8:30 p.m., but the Fan Zone \u2014 with World Cup-related entertainment, food and retail \u2014 was unaffected by the crash and remained open through its normal closing time of10 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the NYPD\u2019s Public Information desk, officers were operating the drone above the park when the unit \u201chad a malfunction and fell from an elevated position,\u201d causing the lithium-ion battery to catch fire.<\/p>\n

An FDNY spokesperson told the Brooklyn Eagle that the department received an alert that the drone\u2019s battery was \u201csmoking.\u201d One fire engine, one ladder truck and a hazmat unit responded and mitigated the situation, the spokesperson said. The fire did not spread and no injuries were reported. FDNY closed the incident at 10:26 p.m.<\/p>\n

Afterward, members of NYPD\u2019s Technical Assistance Response Unit were seen packing a recovered piece of the drone into the back of an SUV. According to the city, TARU operates<\/a> the department\u2019s roughly 100 drones, officially called Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The cause of the incident has not yet been determined.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for drone manufacturer Skydio told the Eagle, \u201cWe are aware of the incident involving an NYPD drone and are working closely with the NYPD to understand what occurred. We have analyzed available flight logs and have found no evidence of a safety malfunction that could have caused the incident.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said that safety is the highest priority at the company. \u201cSkydio drones have multiple safety and reliability features that enable operations in a wide variety of conditions and over urban areas. We will continue to support NYPD\u2019s review and will share appropriate updates as it progresses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Mayor Eric Adams introduced the \u201cDrone as First Responder\u201d program in November 2024. One of the ten original drones is shown here. Photo: Michael Appleton\/Mayoral Photography Office<\/p>\n

NYPD\u2019s \u2018Drone as First Responder\u2019 program<\/p>\n

NYPD uses drones of various capabilities for a growing number of operations. The city\u2019s mandatory quarterly report<\/a> shows police drones were used for 2,595 operations during the first three months of this year: 1,246 times in Brooklyn \u2014 the borough with the most NYPD drone usage \u2014 followed closely by the Bronx with 1,011 uses. NYPD drones were used 174 times in Queens, 162 times in Manhattan and just twice in Staten Island during the same time period.<\/p>\n

The main reason drones were used in Brooklyn was listed as \u201cDrone as First Responder<\/a>\u201d \u2014 i.e., responding to 911 calls, alerts from the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system, search and rescue, or incidents of crimes in progress. The DFR program, initiated by former Mayor Eric Adams in November 2024, currently relies on Skydio X10<\/a> drones.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NYPD also deploys Skydio drones for crowd control<\/a>, monitoring protests, tracking subway surfers<\/a>, and \u201cgetting help where it\u2019s needed,\u201d according to the company\u2019s social media pages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition, NYPD utilizes drones made by BRINC and DJI, which may have specialized capabilities including dropping floatation devices to people in the water, breaking windows or squeezing into small spaces, according to NYPD\u2019s \u201cUnmanned Aircraft Systems: Impact and Use Policy<\/a>,\u201d updated Feb. 4.<\/p>\n

Depending on how they are equipped, X10 drones can cost anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000 or more, according to various online sources. (Skydio does not publish its prices.) At the high end, the NYPD paid $87,750 in June for a Lemur 2 drone manufactured by BRINC, with night vision<\/a> and thermal sensors, according to Gothamist.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the Federal Aviation Administration allowed the NYPD to fly drones \u201cbeyond-visual-line-of-sight<\/a>\u201d across much of the city, increasing the ability of the department to use drones as first responders, according to Skydio. The FAA is currently considering a rule change which would expand BVLOS<\/a> drone operations to commercial and civic uses.<\/p>\n

\"AA member of NYPD\u2019s Technical Assistance Response Unit packs a recovered piece of the drone into the back of an SUV on Water Street. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Not the first NYPD drone fire<\/p>\n

Lithium-ion batteries can be especially dangerous in drones because mechanical damage from a crash can cause the internal separator<\/a> to fail, resulting in a spontaneous, self-fueling failure known as thermal runaway, according to Underwriter Labs Research Institute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is not the first time an NYPD drone has caught fire in Brooklyn. On May 12, 2025, a Skydio X10 drone used by the 71st Precinct in Crown Heights caught fire after landing on the roof of the precinct. The fire was put out with an extinguisher, and there was no property damage. Skydio\u2019s CEO Adam Bry said on LinkedIn that the root cause of the crash had been determined to be \u201cbattery connector wear<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bry said that after the 2025 incident, the company had identified a telemetry signature for its drones showing early warning signs of battery connector wear. The company is monitoring X10 analytics, and contacting customers whose units show signs of excessive battery connector wear, he said.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice and fire vehicles blocked Water Street after the NYPD drone crash. The adidas World Cup Fan Zone can be seen, brightly lit, in the background. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

NYPD has increased use of license plate readers, drones and now, anti-drones<\/p>\n

The police department has upgraded its Domain Awareness System platform, which connects the city\u2019s various forms of surveillance technology, to DASH 2.0, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in her State of the NYPD 2026<\/a> speech in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAn officer driving on the FDR can be alerted that a stolen car just passed a license plate reader up ahead,\u201d she said. \u201cA supervisor at a scene can see live drone video and know exactly where that drone is in relation to the incident.\u201d She called the system, \u201ca crime fighter\u2019s dream and a criminal\u2019s nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

NYPD has also invested $6.5 million into anti-drone technology, formerly reserved for the federal government, to protect major events like the FIFA World Cup and America250.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is one threat that keeps me up at night, it is drones,\u201d Tisch said, citing the ease of adapting commercial drones into weapons of war.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NYPD\u2019s counter-unmanned aircraft system unit, called the C-UAS unit, is currently working in partnership with the FBI on anti-drone operations, but will continue to operate on its own afterward. \u201cWe plan to be ready to commence drone mitigation operations as soon as we are legally allowed to do so,\u201d Tisch said.<\/p>\n

According to NYPD\u2019s \u201cDrone Detection Systems Impact and Use Policy,\u201d issued in February, the city\u2019s drone detection systems<\/a> have the ability to process audio signals, geo-location data, video and still photographs of unmanned aircraft systems, but do not use biometric tracking data.<\/p>\n

FEMA has awarded $250 million for counter-drone technology<\/a> to all 11 FIFA World Cup 2026 host states and the National Capital Region, with another $250 million available to states and territories in FY 2027, according to the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUMBO \u2014 A New York Police Department drone, which had been hovering near the FIFA World Cup Fan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,34653,100,99,1219,9,24,20324,15662,5325,63,14771],"class_list":["post-281392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-bridge-park-bbp","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-drones","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-fire-department-fdny","tag-new-york-police-department-nypd","tag-no-paywall","tag-nyc","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}