A seven-year-old boy is clinging to his life after a falling drone at Lake Eola Park hit him during the city's holiday Drone show Saturday night.
Channel 9 talked to a 10-year Chief Drone Pilot and owner of Atmosphere Drones, Paul Charbonnet, on the tragedy and the inner workings of creating a drone show and how they operate.
"It gets a little more complicated with what they're doing because they have to be able to operate hundreds of drones at once. Now, no one is technically controlling the drone but there is a controller. Moving the drone around is all automated and run by computers," said Charbonnet.
Charbonnet referred to the dozens of drones operated by Texas-based company Sky Element Drones. The company operated the Saturday show for the second year.
The 15-minute show began without a hitch, each drone moving with surgical precision. But perfection can unravel in seconds.
A few minutes in, a section of the formation began to falter. According to the FAA, several drones collided and moved off-course and dropped into the crowd, hitting a seven-year-old boy.
The child's mother told Channel 9 Sunday. His sister saw him on the ground bleeding, and he was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery.
Charbonnet said in the case of events, the drones are operated by computer software with dozens of people nearby in case of a faulty malfunction.
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"It's all automated and run by computers, but they are watching it and in control and can pause and start and abort the mission if needed," said Charbonnet.
FAA is investigating the exact cause of the incident and what caused the drones to malfunction.
The FAA said drone arrays and light shows are subject to FAA regulation. Typically, these events require a waiver to the regulation that prohibits operating more than one drone at a time. We thoroughly review each drone-show application to make sure the flying public and people on the ground will be safe. Among other things, we review:
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"Drones can hit each other for a bunch of different reasons. In that particular case, it could have been anything, a drone could have hit a drone, or there could have been a bird," said Charbonnet.
Sky Element Drones sent Channel 9 a statement about the incident:
"Sky Elements Drones wants to extend our sincere hope for a full and speedy recovery to those impacted at our Lake Eola show in Orlando on Saturday, Dec. 21. The well-being of our audience is our utmost priority, and we regret any distress or inconvenience caused.
We are diligently working with the FAA and City of Orlando officials to determine the cause and are committed to establishing a clear picture of what transpired."
The city of Orlando also sent a statement about the incident.
"Our thoughts are with the family and all those impacted by the outcome of the event. The city remains in contact with the vendor and FAA."