Ironic: Pilot crashes drone into cameraman while teaching drone safety on TV

Fancy a battle scar? Think it’ll give you that warrior’s mystique? Well then my friend, you’re in luck, because fictional studies have shown that the best place to acquire such a scar — save for aristocratic European dueling fraternities — without threatening your life, is through a drone crash. Better yet, find a guy or gal giving a public lecture on drone safety, and stand near their drone (or preferably, beneath it) as there’s a high probability that said drone will crash into you. At least, that’s what happened to a Fox News’ cameraman just as Popular Science ’s Dave Mosher was explaining the Federal Aviation Association’s upcoming drone regulations. Bonus points should definitely be awarded for that spot on caption, thank you Fox.

You can view the entire Fox News segment here , if you dare, but I’d wager the gif above sum up all the juicy bits. We are told that the Fox cameraman’s ample reflexes prevented any potential scarification.

As the drone-stricken triathlete and the TGI Friday’s patron would both undoubtedly attest, it’s very important to close your eyes and lean forward right before the moment of impact, thus ensuring you walk away with a flattering scar on either your forehead or nose bridge; not the eyes.

But don’t worry, commercial drones won’t become a reality for another few years, and hobbyist drones are not common enough to strike pedestrians like us with a constant sky-watching paranoia. Although the FAA promised to finish its ruling on commercial drones by fall 2015, a spokesman from the Government Accountability Office said the proposal will not be completed until 2017, at the earliest. 

All joking aside, the easy access to powerful, longer distance drones is becoming increasingly problematic, especially given that airways are populated with thousands of vehicles; there’s little to stop a reckless pilot from flying his/her drone too close to a jet engine. 

To its benefit, the FAA is considering a number of regulations, including requiring pilot licenses to fly drones; and while we may not all agree with every bullet point proposed, we can at least agree that reckless droning can endanger lives.