Drones fell out of the sky causing fires in a light show in Southern China in Liuyang Hunan Province went horribly wrong. Footage shared online shows the drones spiralling out of control and crashing into the ground, some bursting into flames and igniting fires. Social media users compared the fallout to the Armageddon movie.
A drone show in China has gone horribly wrong after hundreds of synchronised drones fell from the sky, starting fires.
The light show in Southern China has ended in chaos after hundreds of drones malfunctioned and fell from the sky during National Day celebrations.
The incident occurred last Thursday night in Liuyang, Hunan Province – a city known as China's fireworks capital – during a large-scale performance combining fireworks and drones at the Sky Theatre.
Footage shared online shows the drones spiralling out of control and crashing into the ground, some bursting into flames and igniting fires.
[...] The event, titled "October: The Sound of Blooming Flowers," is intended to create a 3D visual display with the help of drones over land and the city's river.
[...] Just last year, a drone show in China's mainland city of Quanzhou descended into chaos after more than 2000 drones went haywire, causing them to plummet towards crowds.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Billy the Mountain on Friday October 17, @12:45AM (2 children)
Probably should have been using fiberoptic drones. Less susceptible to rogue RF. Would only need to clean up the big rats nest of fiber at the end of the show but no crashes.
(Score: 3, Touché) by aafcac on Friday October 17, @03:18AM
And I thought those candle powered hot air balloons were a menace.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 17, @11:14PM
All those propellers and fiber optic strands.
Oh, my gawd!
(Score: 2) by Rich on Friday October 17, @01:50AM (5 children)
I wonder if we get to hear what caused the issue. Looks like they wanted to combine drones and pyro.
If done right, even without fireworks, this stuff is seriously amazing. Up until now, I thought, compared to fireworks, that's like a bad veggie patty compared to a good steak. But with 5000+ drones, that veggie patty starts to become something great in itself. Here's a Guiness world record with 7500 drones from a year ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpaSXwpKzGk [youtube.com]. Holy cow. By now they regularly do shows with over 10000 in China, but I found the art of the first show most impressive among the videos I looked up. I guess such a show has to be experienced live, and I'm definitely going to see one if it's within bearable range.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by c0lo on Friday October 17, @02:40AM (3 children)
Likely, someone with a spark gap transmitter around.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 17, @06:38AM
October 2, 2025, Liuyang province, China
Should anyone want some key words for search engines.
Oh yes...Spark Gap transmitters and Tesla Coils. Those things will render damn near an entire neighborhood airspace unusable for RF comms.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 18, @02:04AM (1 child)
> spark gap transmitter
Replace the ignition wires on an ICE with copper wire.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday October 18, @02:20AM
High voltage module, 3-12V input, under $5 on temu/aliexpress/etc, with free delivery outside China.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by driverless on Friday October 17, @03:09AM
This happened more than a week ago, there's a ton of videos of it on YT. It seems many of the drones were carrying significant amounts of pyrotechnics, which is what caused the fires.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 17, @02:42AM
Or fire ants.