The National Transportation Safety Board released its preliminary report Thursday on what went wrong at a drone show in Florida last month that caused some planes to go off course, seriously injuring a young child.
The accident occurred during a Christmas light show held by Sky Elements in Lake Eola Park is located in Orlando On December 21, 2024. Hundreds of people were watching the air show when several drones fell out of formation – some crashing into each other before falling to the ground.
One of the rogue planes hit a 7-year-old boy in the face and chest, knocking him unconscious on impact. His parents told FOX 35 Orlando at the time that his injuries required open-heart surgery.
The initial report from the NTSB revealed that “cluster errors” just before the show began led to a misaligned flight path, causing chaos for a handful of the 500 drones during the show.
Drone accident during Orlando holiday air show sends child to hospital
The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report on what went wrong at a Florida drone show on December 21, 2024. There were 500 drones prepared to fly in the air show over Lake Eola in Orlando, Florida. (Sky Elements LLC via NTSB report)
Before the show, a remote pilot confirmed that setup was standard and “consisted of preflight checks” ensuring “software programming is matched and up to date on all display computers, and the network layout of 500 drones on the ground is planned.” According to the report.
Nearly five drones “did not accept launch data” initially, but troubleshooting Wi-Fi access points led to All 500 drones The NTSB wrote that the show would appear on the network five minutes before the start of the show.
A simple reboot was then performed to ensure all drones were “display ready”. After the reboot, two drones were removed from display because their systems were not showing green. Once they were taken out, the drones were armed and the countdown to takeoff began.
“Upon takeoff, it was noted that the plane’s layers did not rise uniformly,” the report said. “Further investigation revealed that the launch parameters file containing the final flight paths had not been transmitted, and that the display center was not perfectly aligned.”
Several drones malfunctioned during a drone show in Orlando, Florida, on December 21, 2024, sending the unmanned aerial objects crashing to the ground. (Credit – X/MosquitoCoFL)
Due to misalignment, the drones changed positions and altitude when transitioning to the first frame of animation, causing a collision and loss of control. Several drones fell from the sky and hit the ground, while one of them headed towards the audience.
the offer Remote pilot in command He told the NTSB that he decided the safest course of action was to continue the show based on the steps involved in pausing it and retrieving the drones from the air. The remaining drones were able to complete the display and land safely.
A review by the pilot of the plane's logs revealed that the display position had rotated by 7 degrees, resulting in the “fixed geofence being close to the audience.” Furthermore, the fence was not set to the company's standard of 1 meter, but was 5 meters high.
“The combined errors led to a reduction in the safety zone that was outside the company’s standards,” the report noted.
Each drone participating in the show has an SD card containing the recorded data. Approximately 42 affected drones were recovered by the operator, who sent their SD cards for analysis at the NTSB's Vehicle Registration Laboratory. Law enforcement personnel also located a drone and sent it to the NTSB. Five drones believed to have fallen into the lake were not recovered.
A group of 500 drones participating in the air light show crashed into the ground, and five of them fell into the lake. (Credit – X/MosquitoCoFL)
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While the NTSB is still investigating the accident, additional safety measures have been proposed to the FAA by Sky Elements in order to prevent future problems, including allowing more time on site before the show, or the need for a pilot in command, or second-in-command . To verify all steps are completed prior to presentation, and provide additional training to all pilots.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has restricted Sky Elements, which offers shows across the country, by suspending its waiver allowing Drone offers Near crowds and at night.
