AirVūz News: World of Drones 03/16/20

Published 03/16/2020 07:03

Welcome to the "World of Drones." Your weekly news fix on all things drone related. Let’s get right to your headlines.

Two men in New Jersey have been charged with using drones to smuggle drugs and cell phones into a prison. Nicolo Denichilo and Adrian Goolcharran dropped items such as marijuana, steroids, cell phones, SIM cards, and syringes into the Fort Dix prison via drone. After law enforcement saw a drone flying over the prison’s housing units last Thursday, they attempted to arrest the men who they saw flying the drone through surveillance footage but they fled. Authorities have said they have evidence there have been at least seven drone deliveries since July 2019. DNA evidence has since linked the two suspected men to the crime and they could each face up to five years in prison and $100,000 in penalties.

The AUVSI Xponential 2020 trade show has been postponed due to the coronavirus. It’s tentatively rescheduled for August. AUVSI Xponential is a large event for UAV industries that attracts more than 8,500 attendees and 700 exhibitors from around the world. It was set to take place in Boston in early May. AUVSI president and CEO Brian Wynne said in a statement, “Based on currently available information, and with the best interests of our members, exhibitors, attendees and the global community in mind, the AUVSI Board of Directors has made the difficult but necessary decision to postpone AUVSI Xponential 2020.”

A $26,000 drone was lost in the ocean during a training exercise. The DJI Matrice 210 ran out of battering about a mile off the coast of North Carolina last week during high winds. The DJI drone was outfitted with the Zenmuse XT2 thermal camera unit and a Zenmuse Z30 zoom camera. The drone was meant to provide aerial surveillance for boat crews practicing rescue operations of “stranded” swimmers. The training exercise was put on by local Sheriff’s offices along with the US Coast Guard and fire and police departments. While battling 15mph winds the team decided it would be safer to ditch the drone in the ocean rather than try to land it in a boat. An internal investigation is ongoing, but Fire Chief Woody Sullivan said this is the first major incident in two years of flying a fleet of five drones. He said, “After 642 flights, that’s not bad. And a lot of these missions are not flown in the most ideal conditions, either.”

Now it’s time to get to the videos that made our top 5 list from last week: “Aerial Production Reel | Framework Films | 4K” by FrameworkFilms, “Krasnoyarsk. Siberia. -30°С” by Makhorov, “AFTERHOURS” by panvelvet, “Murmansk 4K video footage | Trip to Russia” by Mikhail from Russia Beyond, “ICELAND | 4K | DJI Mavic 2 Pro Footage” by Arsonic. And the Drone Video of the Week and winner of $250 is…. FrameworkFilms with “Aerial Production Reel | Framework Films | 4K.” This is the first official production reel from FrameworkFilms after 10 years of being in the biz. Locations featured include Paris, New York City, London, Faroe Islands, the Yucatan Peninsula, San Francisco, Vienna, and Los Angeles to name a few. Congratulations again, you’re now entered into our Drone Video of the Month contest where you could win an additional $500!

In case you haven’t heard, AirVuz has acquired the New York City Drone Film Festival! This will take place of our annual Drone Video Awards, but rest assured all drone videos uploaded to AirVuz.com are still automatically entered into the festival and will be considered in a number of categories which we will announce at a later date. Click the link in the description below for all the latest updates on the film festival.

  • about 4 years ago
  • 733 VŪZ
  • 23
  • 14
  • Report

NEWS CATEGORIES:

To watch the previous episode of "World of Drones" CLICK HERE

To learn more about the Drone Video of the Week CLICK HERE

To learn more about the New York City Drone Film Festival CLICK HERE

 

SOURCES:

Cozzens, Tracy. “AUVSI Xponential Show Postponed until August.” GPS World, 16 Mar. 2020, www.gpsworld.com/auvsi-xponential-show-postponed-until-august/.

Kesteloo, Haye. “$26,000 DJI Matrice 210 Lost to the Ocean during Training Exercise.” DroneDJ, 13 Mar. 2020, dronedj.com/2020/03/13/26000-dji-matrice-210-lost-to-the-ocean-during-training-exercise/.

Setty, Ganesh. “Two New Jersey Men Used Drones to Smuggle Drugs and Cell Phones into a Prison, Federal Authorities Say.” CNN, Cable News Network, 15 Mar. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/03/15/us/new-jersey-prison-drone/index.html.