Dog attack causes pilot to crash drone and start fire
Two rowdy dogs, one GoPro-toting drone and a grass fire: an Oregon man says he wants his recent experience to be a cautionary tale.
Cameron Austin-Connolly shared video he shot this week that ended in flames. He was flying his drone over an empty field filled with dry grass, wearing goggles that allowed him to see through the drone’s camera.
Suddenly, Austin-Connolly wrote, “this guy walks by with two dogs and one of them jumps on me knocking the transmitter out of my hands.”
The drone video shows the result: a tailspin into the ground that almost immediately sparks a grass fire.
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Austin-Connolly says he called the Eugene Springfield Fire Department, whose firefighters quickly put out the flames. He says the fire marshal told him it was the department’s first drone fire, and firefighters returned his equipment afterward. (The drone didn’t survive the crash, but the GoPro did.)
“If nothing else I would like for this to be a cautionary tale about dog ownership and fire danger this time of year,” Austin-Connolly wrote. “I know I’m going to be a lot more careful.”
