The FAA was forced to close the airspace above what we now understand is the crash site of Kobe Bryant’s helicopter, due to aircraft and drones seen in the area. The FAA closed the airspace at 10:15 pm UTC on January 26th and the restriction will remain in place until January 31st at 2:14 pm UTC.

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A candy-carrying drone fell out of the sky in Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture, Japan last Saturday, injuring six people, including children. The unmanned aerial vehicle was distributing candy over a crowd at an event, when it suddenly crashed to the ground, as reported by The Japan Times.

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DJI just released an official statement on the report of a plane striking a drone in Quebec that we wrote about earlier today. Currently, it is not known (or at least not officially) what kind of drone and what brand exactly has collided with the commercial airliner. However with DJI being the largest drone manufacturer, chances are, it may have been one of their products. DJI states that they are ready to assist the Canadian aviation authorities. The collision took place at about 1500 feet of elevation and DJI’s drones are programmed by default to not exceed 4oo feet. In their release, DJI stresses that many people are using drones safely and responsibly and that DJI is pioneering new technologies such as geo-fencing and AeroScope to allow for safer sharing of the airspace.

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Pretty badly, actually. But it depends on many different factors such as; the mass of the drone, the speed of the drone at the moment of impact, the type of accident (fall-out-of-the-sky vs. fly-into) and the design of the drone. Recently the researchers at the Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), one of the Federal Aviation Administration’s UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) test sites, completed a study about the kind of injuries a person might sustain from a drone collision.

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On Thursday a civilian drone, illegally flown over Staten Island, crashed into a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter flown by Fort Bragg soldiers. Fortunately, the crash did not result in any injuries. The crash, however, is the first crash between an aircraft and a drone in the U.S. history. The helicopter and its crew are part of the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division. They were present in New York in support of the United Nations General Assembly, as many important world leaders were present in the city. Lt. Col. Joe Buccino, a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division, stated that the damage to the helicopter was minor. A rotor blade and window got damaged as the drone struck the helicopter around 7.30pm.

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