You know, there’s a lot of reasons that a lot of places are instituting legal rules around drone flight – not that many people observe them – and chief among them are the safety concerns that come along with large objects hurtling through the air at high speeds. Now, thanks to this frankly awesome video from Australia, we can add a few more reasons to the list: 1. Animal safety 2. Lots of money going to fix your drone when it tangles with a bird of prey. Take a moment and watch as a wedge-tailed eagle curls up her talons into a fist of fury and punches this drone from the air.
Did you watch it? How. Freaking. Awesome? Personally, I completely agree with the bird. That drone is just doing this whole flying thing wrong, and it deserves to hit the ground in a heap of scratched and bent metal!
Don’t worry though! The drone owner made sure to report that the bird was unharmed after the knockout fight it had started. As he said in the video description, “Eagle was fine – she was massive, and used talon’s to ‘punch’ the drone out of the sky. Hung around overhead so i got a really good look. Eagle’s health was my main concern also.”
He added as a precaution to other drone owners, “Do not fly drones near birds of prey, they clearly attack seeing you as a threat or the right sized dinner. This will cost you money and potentially harm to the bird. This one was fine.. the drone needed some attention before it could fly again.”
I’ll be honest: I wanted to make a lot of “Americuh!” jokes in here. The only thing that stopped me was that the video is Australian. Lesson learned: Do not fly drones near birds of prey, and there is another animal from Australia that is completely and utterly badass.
