Miraculous escape for skier as drone comes within inches of taking him out
By Stephen Barry
The international ski federation has banned the use of camera drones from its World Cup races after a device crashed and nearly hit Austrian skier Marcel Hirscher during a slalom in Italy.
FIS men’s race director Markus Waldner said drones will be prohibited “as long as I am responsible... because they are a bad thing for safety”.
The unmanned flying object carrying a TV camera came down and shattered on the icy slope just behind Hirscher during Tuesday night’s race in Madonna di Campiglio.
The four-time overall champion was unhurt and continued his run, finishing second behind Norwegian winner Henrik Kristoffersen.
The company responsible for the camera drone, sports marketing agency Infront, said in a statement “the circumstances leading to (the crash) are currently being examined”.
People have taken a dislike to drones for a lot of reasons.
It's a fair complaint, too, going by this near-miss at Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, which is one of the scariest things we’ve seen.
The four-in-a-row World Cup-winning Austrian skier Marcel Hirscher was beginning his descent from the starting gate when a camera drone crashed into the snow behind him.
Hirscher seemed to take the close-call in his stride, posting this photo to Instagram with the caption, ‘Heavy air traffic in Italy #crazy #drone #crash #luckyme’.
Miraculously, Hirscher not only finished the Men’s Slalom course, but did so in the second fastest time.
That result puts him top of the Alpine Skiing World Cup standings heading into Christmas.
Incroyable!
