A drone pilot has shared some incredible footage of an eagle snatching the device out of midair. The drone pilot was flying in First Person View (FPV) near Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, when the bird swooped out of nowhere.
Photographer Adam Culbertson shared the amazing footage on the drone subreddit, where he revealed that he was unable to later recover the DJI Avatar drone.
The FVP footage begins in a pretty ordinary fashion, with the device soaring over rock pinnacles. Around one minute in, however, the footage starts shaking, and then a feathered wing becomes visible. The footage was recorded via the VR goggles that Adam was wearing at the time of flying.
It’s interesting to note, as pointed out by Futurism, that at no point do we have any clue that the bird is approaching the drone. That’s some pretty effective hunting skills there.
Culbertson estimates that the bird must have been flying at around 40mph and was quite a distance away by the time he lost connection. He says he gave up looking for the drone, saying, “it’s likely in one of the most inaccessible areas in the state of Utah.”
Incredibly, Adam posted an update to say that DJI honoured the replacement policy, stating that it was a ‘Flyaway’. Quite literally, though, with an extra pair of wings!
One person commented that they would “buy DJI in future just because of their policy.”
[Via Petapixel]
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