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

A light show over a Sydney marina ended with dozens of drones crashing worryingly close to crowds watching the display.

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

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

People said they could hear the sound the drones made when they hit the water and the concrete below.

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

A total of 89 drones were impacted after a sudden change in the radio frequency the aircraft use during take-off, according to the organiser behind the display, British company Skymagic.

Footage shows the fleet flying above the harbour as they attempt to create a formation before some of the lit-up aircraft begin to fall.

The show features up to 1,000 drones and normally lasts 12 minutes. The aircraft sourced for the display were said to be the brightest drones available on the market.

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

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

Robert, a worker at Darling Harbour, told ABC: ‘Everything seemed normal and then very shortly after that first image was displayed, on the southern side of Cockle Bay you started seeing drones dropping in the water and then from there it was a cascading failure of the drones.’

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

‘They did look like they were well and truly outside their flying zones. They’re not meant to fly over anyone or even close to anyone, and it fell within metres of people I was with,’ Robert claimed.

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

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

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