Someone Crashed Their Camera Drone Into the Giant Ferris Wheel in Seattle

Here’s another story that illustrates why the US government is racing to create a national drone registry that attaches each drone to a name: on Wednesday, someone apparently tried to fly their DJI Phantom drone through the Seattle Great Wheel and failed, causing the drone to plummet to the ground and smash a basketball-sized hole in a plastic dining table.

The Seattle Police Department writes that a security guard was walking near the 175-foot giant ferris wheel at 4:45 PM when he heard a strange buzzing noise. Looking up, he watched as the drone flew right into the center of the ferris wheel and fell to the ground.

Perhaps the drone owner was trying to shoot something like this aerial footage from 2014 by Adam Guy:

Luckily, the table was the only casualty in the accident.

Drone bounced off the great wheel and smashed through a plastic table pic.twitter.com/TmMvVAmLEJ

— Henry Rosoff (@HenryKIRO7) November 12, 2015

The drone owner was nowhere to be found, as is often the case with accidents like this one. Back in June, during a parade in Seattle, a drone crashed into a building, fell onto a woman’s head, and knocked her unconscious. (The owner did later come forward).

The Seattle police department is now working hard to find the owner behind this latest crash. A spokesperson tells Ars Technica that without a witness or the pilot coming forward, it will be “nearly impossible” to identify the pilot.

---

Image credits: Header photo by T.Tseng