A city-organized Christmas event featuring hundreds of soaring drones took a dangerous turn when a young boy was severely hurt after several drones “dive-bombed” him during a failed aerial maneuver.
The New York Post reported on injuries from the holiday light show, which showcased hundreds of drones coordinated high in the sky as they moved together, shifting from red to green and back again. The Sunday night event, which took place at 6:30 p.m., was hosted by Sky Element Drones and backed by the city of Orlando, Florida. The event drew crowds to Lake Eola Park, where people later rushed to safety as some of the intricate patterns and robotic routines started to malfunction.
Witnesses said that a number of drones began to “lose formation” and descended rapidly toward the ground, dive-bombing the crowd of hundreds in alarming footage recorded by onlookers. One clip shows the crowd reacting with a chorus of “whoas,” while a child off-screen can be heard asking, “What’s going on?” Despite the scare, the show went on, though the 8 p.m. repeat performance was called off, according to News 6.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-media-max-width=”560″><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>🚨<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#BREAKING</a>: A 7-year-old boy is fighting for his life after being injured by falling drones during a Christmas holiday show that went terribly wrong.⁰⁰📌<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orlando?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Orlando</a> | <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Florida?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Florida</a>⁰⁰A 7-year-old boy is in critical condition in the ICU after being struck by a drone during a Saturday… <a href=”https://t.co/v4zjupXh5v”>pic.twitter.com/v4zjupXh5v</a></p>— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) <a href=”https://twitter.com/rawsalerts/status/1870993323026006236?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>December 23, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
On Facebook, two worried parents shared a photo of their young son, who was seen lying in a hospital bed with a bloodied upper lip. His mother confirmed that he is set to undergo emergency heart surgery. “Pray for my son, we went to the Drone show at Lake Eola, and one of the drones hit him in the face,” Jessica Lumedge wrote. “I’ve never been so scared. I can’t believe a drone show at Lake Eola Park turned into this. I’m terrified for my baby,” mother Adriana Edgerton added. In a follow-up post with another photo of her son, Edgerton said, “My baby is going into emergency heart surgery just from trying to watch a drone show… I am beyond words, beyond terrified! [The City of Orlando] and Sky Elements Drones really need to explain this. They will be held accountable for what happened to my son. I pray he makes it through this!” Andrea Otero, the city’s public information manager, told Good Morning America, “We are in communication with the vendor to understand what happened during the event. The FAA is handling the investigation.” A representative from Sky Elements stated, “We are working closely with the FAA and City of Orlando officials to figure out the cause and are dedicated to providing a clear understanding of what occurred.”
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