Welcome to The Buzz, a weekly roundup of news about consumer, enterprise, and defense uses for drones. For now, it’s in a written format, but soon there will be a return to our weekly podcast format. This week was a big week for controversies; between the investigation of the LA fire’s drone crash, Red Cat’s potential fraud, and DJI dropping No-Fly Zones, there was a lot.
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Hundreds of spectators gathered at Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando on December 21, expecting a dazzling holiday-themed drone show. Instead, they witnessed chaos as drones crashed midair, plunged into the lake, and veered off course. The worst of it? A 7-year-old boy was struck by one of the falling drones, suffering serious injuries that led to open-heart surgery. Now, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its preliminary report detailing what went wrong, and the findings are alarming.
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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued a preliminary report on the February 16 crash of a Joby electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi prototype, citing “a component failure” as the cause.
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If you keep an eye on the news, you may be aware that a transport jet recently went down off of Hawaii. The two pilots on board were injured but rescued. And now, a Remotely Operated Vehicle — the underwater equivalent of a drone — has been used to examine the site, which is too deep for all but the most specialized divers wearing pressure suits.
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The rapid increase of drone use in a variety of enterprise activities has made upgrading their regulation both inevitable and anticipated. One such revamp is now in the works following a National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) decision to expand its criteria for examining accidents involving commercial drones.
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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released drone video footage of NBA legend Kobe Bryant’s helicopter crash site near Calabasas, California. The video, released on YouTube, includes both drone footage as well as on-ground video. NTSB personnel are using a DJI Phantom series drone to map out the scene of the wreckage.