Two drone shows halted in Florida after child injured in Orlando show

Two holiday hotspots across Florida have hit the pause button on their drone shows after drones at a previous show plummeted to the ground, resulting in a 7-year-old boy needing emergency surgery.

Universal Orlando and Orlando World Center Marriott have both halted their drone shows after another show on the December 21st performance at Lake Eola Park, Orlando, according to CBC.

Universal Orlando has said that it won’t go ahead with the drone portion of its ‘CineSational: A Symphonic Spectacular show.’ The rest of the show, including fireworks, projections and synchronized fountains will go ahead as planned.

A spokesperson for Universal shared, “We have currently paused the drone component of Cinesational: A Symphonic Spectacular. Guests can still enjoy the show nightly at Universal Studios Florida.”

Orlando World Center Marriott shared that its drone show, a part of its ‘12 Days of Seasonal Fun’, has been cancelled. Just like Universal Orlando, the rest of the festivities will go ahead, including visits from Santa Claus, family games and a fireworks show on New Year’s Eve.

The drone show that resulted in the cancellation of both these drone shows saw multiple drones collide mid-air resulting in them falling on the crowd. The mother of the 7-year-old that was injured shared that her son suffered from a damaged heart valve, requiring emergency open-heart surgery.

The FAA is currently investigating the incident with the show’s organiser, Sky Elements. An incident like this brings into question the safety of drone shows and specifically the space between the drones and crowds.

We hope this accident doesn’t sour the taste of drone shows for the public, but does stress the importance of ensuring safety systems and processes put in place are redundant and don’t provide the public with the chance to get closer to a show than safe to do so.

Image via Josh Spires