ORLANDO, Fla. – Several of the drones that crashed at a Christmas show over Orlando’s Lake Eola last month may not have gotten the computer data needed to properly fly in formation.
That’s the preliminary conclusion from the National Transportation Safety Board. The report released Thursday afternoon shows several of Sky Elements' 500 drones were not receiving data up until five minutes before showtime.
When they did launch, they did not launch uniformly, causing some of them to collide with other drones and crash.
The report says the launch parameter file, which contained the final flight paths, had not been sent to the drones.
Documents obtained by News 6 last month show the drones were supposed to be positioned directly over Lake Eola for the show, a safe distance from the crowd.
According to the NTSB report, a review of aircraft logs showed there was a 7-degree misalignment with the show position, which led to the drones getting too close to the audience.
Video taken by people watching the show, shows some of the drones falling onto the ground and not in the water.
A seven-year-old boy was hit in the chest by one of the drones and had to undergo surgery. A GoFundMe account for the boy has raised just over $36,000.
The NTSB says their investigation will continue to try to find ways to prevent something like this from happening again.
NTSB Drone Show Preliminary Report by Christie Zizo on Scribd
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