A malfunction or deliberate act of sabotage?
That’s the question police are investigating following a drone light show gone wrong over the weekend that saw about 40 of the unmanned aerial vehicles plunge into Victoria Harbour.
The mishap with the drones’ GPS system happened on Saturday night forcing the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) to call off the spectacle, arranged for the of the Wine and Dine Festival, which worked as intended during earlier performances on Thursday and Friday.
Footage captured the moment the drones began to go haywire and land in the water.
According to Headline Daily, HKTB’s event and product development general manager Mason Hung said that preliminary investigations found that the drone operator — a Singapore-based company that specialise in drone shows — detected a strong radio frequency one minute before the official performance, making the original radio wave obscure or unstable, which suspected the devices had been externally tampered withsubsequently made it difficult for the drones to find their locations
He also added that it isn’t clear whether or not it was a malicious attack, but that it was not related to the radio interference from surrounding activities like the concert stage.
The festival also called off the drone show planned for Sunday.
Police have been called in to investigate, reported RTHK.
However, one drone expert told the broadcaster the jammed GPS signals that led to the mishap may not have been caused by a deliberate act of sabotage.
Rex Ngan, from the Hong Kong Professional Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Association, told RTHK’s Candice Wong in an interview that interference from mobile phone networks could be to blame.
He said he doubted anyone had ruined the show deliberately.
Anyways, here’s what it looked like firing on all cylinders. Not bad eh.
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