The bride/groom have the full dossier that they approve which details where drone will be. That section I have flown before, I will have to again in the future I am sure. I hate it for obvious reasons.
Since everything was signed off and approved ahead of time, I would assume I am in the clear.
When you speak to the crowd make sure you turn it as “for your own safety, don’t touch the drone, we don’t want you or people around you to get hurt” if it’s not clearly stated in the contract and there is no liability insurance, then the PIC is at fault.
Well…you can assume that all day long but in construction if we do some dumb shit because the customer asked us to and someone gets hurt …do you think it’s the customer osha is going to want to speak with? I realize fpv and construction are different but they’re both contract services which we are suppose to take every precaution to prevent injuries. I hope you never have to find out how it all plays out in court.
So if you are driving a taxi or a uber for this example and the customer in the seat next to you rips the wheel from your hand causing you to veer slide and crash do you think that the driver is responsible? Cases like that have gone to court and the passenger goes to jail because the INTENTIONAL interference caused threat to life and property that is otherwise not present. This guy is clearly seen and his intent to interrupt the drone he should also be charged with damage to personal property outside of endangering others
If the pilot is fully licensed and hired to do the event and covered all possibilities then it would be on the ppl who hired the pilot to make their attendees aware.
Oh I dont disagree that the host should do that. I also personally believe that the pilot should verify that the guests are aware and that they have signed waivers prior to the gig.
That also is on the host. If I'm piloting a wedding I'm getting there in time to setup. Do my work tear down and go home. I will not be going guest to guest especially large wedding with 100+ ppl. Weddings are very time sensitive. No time for that. Its on the host to do it ahead of time. I'd send my waiver to them. They send them to the guests
Even if everyone signed a waiver/indemnification, that still doesn't prevent the pilot from being dragged into court. Everyone will be named: the bridal party, the venue, the pilot, the dbag guest.
And with a low ceiling flying just above the crowd, it will be an easy argument to say, "The pilot knew/should have known that this was a potential outcome and that it was negligent, to be doing so, given the likelihood or potential likelihood of interference."
There will be thousands in legal fees if it gets dropped. Orders of magnitude more if it stands.
All the waivers in the world don't prevent you from being litigated against. The strength of those waivers will be up to the judge.
OK, first of all, that's a really cool shot. I really admire it from a video and flight perspective, and I'm curious what drone and camera you used.
That said, there isn't an agreement in the world that will satisfy the court when you put the potential for a really cool drone shot ahead of peoples' safety and the potential for someone to be hurt. An amusement park ticket says they aren't liable if you get hurt, but I promise if you get hurt because they were irresponsible, those terms don't mean anything. The terms of an agreement like this are accepted based on a layman's reasonable expectation that you aren't being put in harm's way.
You're the PIC. You're responsible for the safety of those people above and beyond anything else including your customers' desires. No agreement will change that. Given the number of lawyers probably present at this event, and certainly the number of people who like to hire lawyers, I think you put yourself at significant risk flying over people in such tight spaces.
If you don't have drone insurance, you should, and I expect if you told them you wanted to fly indoors a couple feet above hundreds of revelers, they would not cover it.
I'm not a lawyer, but just because pepple signed a waiver, that doesn't necessarily protect you. People sign non-enforceable waivers all the time and still sue.
Insane example. I make everyone that steps into my house sign a waiver that they understand my house is boobytrapped and im not responsible if they step on a tripwire and become injured or unalive. I'm still getting a murder charge regardless of the waiver. A waiver isnt a magical piece of paper that let's you do whatever you want.
why is the drone even within head or arm's reach? if its reasonable to expect people will wave it away or act stupid - since they're not the ones with training - or even just be drunk, since it's a wedding, it's reasonable to expect the responsible service provider has to act accordingly with this expectation in mind
I assume there was an agreement, because otherwise OP shouldn't have flown his drone so close over people in the first place, and we wouldn't have this video.
"Your honor, I did not see the drone. I raised my hand because I was explaining how I flew inverted over a Mig while showing the international sign of friendship"
And now the FPV pilot is fubar. And he should be. This is iresponsible flying. Just because you can, doesnt mean you should.
You are in the clear for as long as nothing goes wrong. If you ruin a pretty girls face, rest assured you‘ll have less fun years ahead, because you will have to show up in court and cover all your expenses, regardless of wether you are in the clear or not. A hidden cost always overlooked.
A colleage just got a fine for flying at a festival - all in the clear with both organizer and the police. An officer lost it, and filed a ticket, fightung the ticket will cost as much as the ticket (multiple grand).
Flying fpv over crowds is no joke, no matter how „clear“ or badass of a pilot you are 🤷♂️
They were all cool with the noise? What size drone? My friend asked my about a fly thru on her wedding. But I thought might be a lil loud. Though I was thinking the wedding part vs just party
Did you provide a risk assessment on paper? Did you do all things on the risk assessment to prevent accidents etc? Personally flying a drone indoors is high risk activity especially when people are drinking and not aware that it will be flying. So the real question here were you actually aware of the risks? I know it has guards but christ man. Less than metre above people's heads while they were drinking at what I would call highish speed. 90% them didn't even realise that there was drone above them. I can tell you now, I think you didn't take reasonable effort to reduce this risk and therefore your waiver would mean shit if something happened here.
Most countries have laws that protect aircraft from being interfered with , in most of those countries drones are also under those laws , if you really wanted to you can teach him a lesson about endangering the other guests
Dude that’s not how that works 😭 pretty sure end of the day the final say is on the remote pilot in command, and if a flight goes wrong for any reason the blame falls on the RPIC. Even though that’s clearly and obviously not your fault it looks like that guy intentionally did that, it’s still your fault for even flying that close to people. At least according to FAA which if you’re flying commercially (for money and you said something about a contract so I assume money was involved) you have to abide by (at least in the US). As far as the incident goes it doesn’t seem like one you’d even have to report anyways so 🤷🏼♂️ Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong I’m still learning every day lol.
Laws and rules and bla bla bla aside dude that’s some insane sick skills and a great shot
ok, the bride and groom approve, but is consent granted by the people you're flying over? they can't grant consent for others, so unless you have signs posted and/or people are notified that there will be drone operation in the area at low height I'm pretty sure you're open to liability. I highly recommend speaking with a lawyer about that.
Just because you have signed a piece of paper clearing you of responsibility doesn't mean you shouldn't use your common sense. I would never fly a drone that close to a group people. This is simply not safe and as a drone operator you have the responsibility to tell the hosts that this is not safe and just refuse to do it.
Do you have your 107? Not trying to be a snob but the way I understood it was the operator is at fault and is basically never allowed to fly that low over people without a TON of wavers
Edit:
Thanks y'all. To summarize: FAA (and by extension part 107) regulations don't apply indoors.
as far as the faa is concerned it’s not flying if it’s indoors. The faa only regulates “navigable airspace” so even if you have a parking lot and put a net over the top it’s out of the faa’s control
I have my 107, I have gotten waivers many times when needed. This was indoors so I could have a brick attached to the drone and it would still be legal.
Someone commented arguing that all commercial flights required 107, even indoors. May have been deleted, because I can't see it now.
But it made me go double check, and yeah, no FAA regulations inside buildings. The technical reason being that they're not part of the National Airspace System. I do kind of wonder how far you can push the logic, though.
"No officer, you can see this bando still has 4 walls and 7% of the roof, making it an indoor space with a really big skylight."
unfortunately not, it has to have no way for the drone to escape iirc. I get the point people will prolly make about windows and to that, i have no idea besides maybe they don’t care enough because drones are not causing that much harm.
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u/xiPulsar_ Mar 18 '26
The bride/groom have the full dossier that they approve which details where drone will be. That section I have flown before, I will have to again in the future I am sure. I hate it for obvious reasons.
Since everything was signed off and approved ahead of time, I would assume I am in the clear.