Catastrophic moment when more than a hundred drones malfunction and crash into the Yarra River during a mid-air light show ahead of the Matildas football game
- Drone show ready to light up the skies ahead of Matildas’ game
- But a disturbance caused them to fall into the water below
An aerial light show went haywire ahead of a Matildas World Cup friendly football match, sending dozens of expensive drones crashing into Melbourne’s Yarra River.
The display was designed to wow the crowd during the team’s warm-up match with France at Marvel Stadium in Docklands before the tournament kicks off on Thursday.
But the public was left gasping for all the wrong reasons as more than a hundred drones seemed to stop mid-air and plummet straight into the water.
The drones appeared to malfunction in the air and then automatically landed in the water (pictured)
The Victorian government had previously announced that 500 of the drones would carry out a 10-minute display of ‘messages and images in support of our Matildas’ as a broadcast for their first group stage match.
No injuries have been reported, but the company responsible for the show, Australian Traffic Network, has hired professional divers to fish the drones out of the river from Sunday.
It’s not known exactly how many drones crashed into the river — or how much the final damage bill will be — but the company’s Vic Lorusso said about 350 of the 500 drones went missing after the show.
It is clear that a technical glitch caused the drones to lose contact with the base and begin an automatically controlled descent to the ground, which happened to be above water.
The company, which has done previous successful shows for Vivid in Sydney and the state of origin, said it would launch an investigation into interference.
“To the credit of the drones, they did what they were supposed to do when they had a glitch or a technical glitch, which was to land automatically,” Lorusso said. The age.
‘Unfortunately, when you’re above water, there’s a car land in the water.
“Obviously it’s upsetting to us, but we just need to find out the reason why it happened… but having said that, I’m really happy because everyone is safe, and that’s of the utmost importance to us.”
The Matildas flew to their camp in Brisbane on Saturday for the final few days of preparation before taking on Ireland in their opening game.