Chinese Tourist's Drone Crashes Into Taipei 101 Skyscraper

Taco Cowboy writes that a Chinese tourist has been hit with a fine of $48,000 (NT $1.5 Million) after his drone crashed into the Taipei 101 skyscraper. The tourist, 30-year-old Yan Yungfan, was supposedly attempting to film Taipei's cityscape on Tuesday morning with a remotely controlled Phantom 3 UAV when he lost control of the drone, causing it to hit the side of Taipei 101 at around the 30th floor. No one was injured in the incident and only minor damage was sustained by the building's glass windows, but the video immediately became a viral sensation after it was uploaded online. Taipei 101 said in a statement that there have been three incidents of drones crashing around the building since mid-June, with the first two cases taking place on June 15 and June 20. No injuries have resulted from these crashes, but I wouldn't want to get hit by a 3-pound object falling from that height.

Comments

We need better legislation

[Anonymous Coward]

Frankly drones should be regulated as RC aircraft. We don't fucking allow RC aircraft to be flown in the middle of a city, why the hell would we be ok with drones ?
Use them where it makes sense, in parks, in areas that are predisposed for such things. So that if it falls out of the sky it won't harm/kill someone.

Re:We need better legislation

[kylemonger]

I think it equally likely that manufacturers will regulate themselves semi-voluntarily rather than be forced out of business. They'll make drones that refuse to fly in restricted locations. They'll make drones that land automatically if their batteries get low or if they lose the control signal or if ambient wind speeds are too high or any of a dozen dicey conditions in order to mollify angry legislators. Drones without the safety "smarts" will be banned.

Flying Cars

[SuperKendall]

So the wave of drone accidents and regulations being reported on recently are starting to paint a great picture of why we don't have flying cars yet, nor will we.