Skier Marcel Hirscher almost hit by camera drone in World Cup slalom

[Scubbie]

Skier Marcel Hirscher almost hit by camera drone in World Cup slalom - BBC Sport

Four-time defending overall World Cup champion Marcel Hirscher narrowly avoided being hit by a drone during an Alpine slalom race in Italy on Tuesday.

The Austrian was on his second run when a drone carrying a camera crashed onto the slope centimetres behind him.

"This is horrible," said Hirscher, 26. "This can never happen again. This can be a serious injury."

Despite the incident, Hirscher finished in second place, 1.25 seconds behind Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen.

The result at Madonna di Campiglio saw Hirscher reclaim the overall World Cup lead from Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, who no longer races slalom.

Hirscher, who won slalom silver at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, became the first skier to win the men's overall title for a fourth consecutive year in March.

In a post on his Instagram account following the drone crash, he joked there was "heavy air traffic in Italy".

[marjohn56]

And that's why they are a menace.. Battery or motor failure, loss of control signal or jamming, far too many things can go wrong; someone will be the unlucky recipient of one of these on thier head before too long.

[lettice]

Was that one being flown form one of the broadcasting teams, or was it an idiot flying one for supposed fun?
Thats happened in F1 too and indy too a few times.
Do often wonder they can easily do this with a gust of wind or battery runs out.
Seen quits a lot of them forsale at the chrstmas markets at bargain prices, so looks like a popular christmas pressie thie year.

[Scubbie]

I would imagine that it would have been a trained pilot operating that particular drone. It does perfectly illustrate just how dangerous they can be and one of the reasons why they should not be used near a large crowd.

There are calls in the US to have them all licensed.

Unfortunately too many are already in circulation without ID for such legislation to work.

[Isitme]

..............................................
There are calls in the US to have them all licensed.

Unfortunately too many are already in circulation without ID for such legislation to work.

It is already a recently introduced requirement in the USA
FAA Pushes Past 45K Drone Registrations After 2 Days

UK will no doubt follow.

[Scubbie]

Whilst it might be a good idea, unless each and every drone out there is circulation has a unique serial number or some other identifying markings that are unique, then there is no hope of this succeeding.

It's bad enough with stolen cars. The VIN needs to be placed in a variety of locations in order to deter thieves, but they still persist in attempting to remove the VIN.

I suspect that it is far easier to remove a piece of plastic from a drone than it would be to remove a VIN from multiple positions on a car.

[Isitme]

Under the American system you are issued with a registration number which must be fixed to the drone and when flying it you must carry the written certificate. Anyone caught flying a drone without the registration are liable to a heavy fine. This does not apply to toy like drones weighing under about half a pound, which will take in most of the cheap drones in Xmas stockings.

[sambothrow]

It's so difficult to regulate the ones that are already out there, but they definitely need to come up with some kind of system for regulation of new units sold, whether that's a basic registration or something more significant...

Hard to do without restricting their development though.

Personally I can see huge value in them, but they need to be used safely.

I know they're putting more and more redundancy in to try and stop them falling out the sky.

But there has to be some element of pilot error in the vast majority of cases.