Almost 90 drones plummeted into Sydney Harbour during Sydney’s Vivid Festival on Monday, with organisers forced to cancel shows following the unforeseen “technical issue”.
A fleet of colourful drones light up the sky around Cockle Bay in Darling Harbour during the early ‘Star-Bound’ show at 7.30pm, before 89 drones began breaking away from the pack and plummeting into the water below.
In one video shared online, rogue drones can be seen separating from the group before one loudly splashes into the water as spectators gasp.
Vivid Sydney was forced to cancel the later 9.30pm show on Monday.
The Tuesday and Wednesday night shows have also been cancelled to allow for a “full assessment,” a Vivid Sydney spokesperson said.
Radio frequency change
Operator SkyMagic said the issue was caused by an “unforeseen change in the radio frequency” environment after takeoff. “This anomaly caused a number of drones in the fleet to enact failsafe landing procedures in response to compromised positional accuracy,” it said in a statement.
“The pilot team encountering the issue immediately performed a stop command rendering the fleet stationary in the air, enabling time to safely assess the issue. Once stability had been evaluated, the team then activated the return to home protocol bringing the unaffected drones to a safe landing.”
SkyMagic said no drones escaped the safety boundary of the show parameters.
“Some vehicles during the emergency landing phase encountered the geofence boundary and shut down to preserve the safety zone resulting in them falling into the water.”
It said the issue did not occur during testing, rehearsal or pre-flight checks performed immediately before takeoff.
“During/mid-flight the system reacted appropriately and safely as did the pilots and crew.”
Vivid Sydney apologised to attendees for the “disappointment and inconvenience”.
“The specialist operators identified a technical issue and made the decision to safely discontinue the show in line with standard safety protocols,” a spokesperson said.
“Public safety is always the number one priority and a full assessment is now underway with the specialist operators and relevant government agencies advising on next steps.”
The Star-Bound shows are held on every Sunday to Wednesday night during Vivid Sydney at 7.30pm and 9.30pm.
No decisions have been made for the drone show scheduled for Sunday, May 31 and beyond.
