Nearly 100 drones crash near crowds watching light show at Sydney harbour | News World

A light-weight show over a Sydney marina ended with dozens of drones falling unexpectedly near crowds.

Vivid Sydney festival’s drone displays have been cancelled after a glitch meant scores of unmanned aircraft crashed on Monday evening during a lightweight display.

The incident happened when the drones had taken to the sky above the harbour and around Cockle Bay at about 7.30pm local time.

People said they might hear the sound of the drones made after they smashed into the water and the concrete below.

A harbour employee claimed that he saw drones ‘crashing into the marina wharf and nearly hitting staff, ABC reports.

A complete of 89 drones were impacted after a sudden change within the radio frequency the aircraft use during take-off, the organiser of the display, British company Skymagic, said.

Footage shows the fleet of drones flying above the harbour as they try and create a formation before a number of the lit-up aircraft begin to plunge down.

The show features as much as 1,000 drones and is ready to last 12 minutes. The aircraft sourced for the display were said to be the brightest drones available in the marketplace.

Vivid Sydney confirmed that shows scheduled for today and Wednesday have been cancelled ‘following the unexpected technical difficulties experienced during Monday night’s performance.’

‘Public safety remain our absolute priority, and we apologise for the frustration,’ it said.

Robert, a employee at Darling Harbour, told ABC: ‘Every part seemed normal after which very shortly after that first image was displayed, on the southern side of Cockle Bay you began seeing drones dropping within the water after which from there it was a cascading failure of the drones.’

He said the sound of them crashing was ‘considerable’ even from as much as 65 feet away and that he could hear them ‘physically crash and smash onto the cement.’

‘They did appear like they were well and truly outside their flying zones. They’re not meant to fly over anyone and even near anyone and it fell inside metres of individuals I used to be with,’ Robert claimed.

Vivid Sydney said that no drones landed outside of the planned exclusion zone to their knowledge.

In July 2023, a whole lot of drones were lost during a show at Melbourne’s Victoria Harbour after connection issues, with several landing within the water.

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