A Saturday night Christmas drone show went horribly wrong when the drones used to light up the dark sky started malfunctioning and falling down. In the process, a 7-year-old boy was hit on the chest and is in critical condition in ICU.
The December 21 Christmas holiday mishap happened at Lake Eola in Orlando, Florida, at about 6.45pm when a crowd of over 25,000 people gathered to watch the event organized by Sky Elements Drones, a Texas based company.
The night show was supposed to have 200 drones doing several displays and shapes with red and green lights. Unfortunately, many of them started malfunctioning and colliding with each other.
A rain of falling drones ensued. A video captured by an attendee showed the lit-up drones falling on the people as well as into the lake. Some whizzing away closely overhead the crowd making a man scream “get down”!
Watch the videos below:
The mother of the boy, Adriana Edgerton, could not control her emotions in a video that she made where she said her son would be undergoing emergency surgery. The Orlando Fire Department later reported that the little boy underwent open-heart surgery.
She asked the authorities and the drone company would would happen henceforth, and considered sharing her video on TikTok to further make it viral and solicit their help as she doesn’t know who to hold accountable.
Recalling how it happened, Edgerton said as the drones came crashing down, everybody quickly ducked for cover and it was her daughter that discovered her brother lying unconscious on the ground with “blood coming out of his face” from the drone’s blade cutting his mouth.
Edgerton revealed that the drone hit her son so hard on his chest that one could see a physical imprint of the impact on the boys body. She continued that the impact so so strong that it damages one of his heart valves.
Medical assistants stationed for the event provided immediate aid.
The drone mishap is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) while Sky Elements Drones in a statement apologized for the accident and hoped for a fast and full recovery for the injury while indicating their openness to the FAA’s investigation.
