Seattle police are in possession of a drone that crashed into the Space Needle as pyrotechnicians prepared for a fireworks show there on New Year’s Eve.
A video that was posted to YouTube by tech news site GeekWire on Tuesday shows a drone’s eye view of the observation tower from various angles before it crashes into a platform where the technicians are working.
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“It looks like the drone tractor beam we installed on the Space Needle is working,” Space Needle CEO and president Ron Sevart said in a statement quoted by GeekWire.
The drone is a DJI Inspire 1, a version of which retails online for as much as US$1,999.
Space Needle staff took until Jan. 9 to report the incident to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) because of the effort involved in putting on the annual New Year’s Eve fireworks show, representative Dave Mandapat told Ars Technica.
Staff subsequently informed the police and officers have since placed the drone in evidence.
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The Space Needle didn’t sustain any damage but the drone did, according to Kiro 7, a CBS-affiliated Seattle network.