Vivid Sydney cancels shows after 89 drones plunge into Darling Harbour | Sydney
Nearly 90 drones fell from the sky during an aerial drone demonstration and crashed into Sydney’s Darling Harbour, leading to the cancellation of a second event later in the evening.
Vivid Sydney said “unforeseen technical difficulties” occurred during the show’s performance at 7.30pm on Monday. called Star Limited89 drones crashed into the water at Cockle Bay in Darling Harbour. No injuries were reported.
The show canceled four performances on Tuesday and Wednesday as a precaution to allow operators to complete a full technical and safety review.
Skymagic, the operator of the drone show, said the performance experienced a technical issue after “an unforeseen change in the radio frequency (RF) environment after takeoff.”
“This anomaly caused a number of drones in the fleet to implement fail-safe landing procedures in response to compromised location accuracy,” the company said.
“Encountering the problem, the pilot team immediately executed an abort command, stabilizing the squadron in the air, providing time to safely assess the problem. Once stability was assessed, the team activated the return-to-home protocol, which brought the unaffected drones to a safe landing.”
Skymagic said no drones left the show’s security perimeter.
“During the emergency landing phase, some vehicles encountered the geographical boundary and closed down to protect the safety zone, causing them to fall into the water,” the statement said.
Vivid said in a statement on Monday night that “public safety and security remains an absolute priority” and that Monday’s 9.30pm performance was canceled on the advice of specialist operators.
“We apologize for the disappointment and thank everyone for their patience and understanding,” Vivid said.
Karen Jones, chief executive of Destination NSW, which runs Vivid, told ABC Radio Sydney it was “incredibly sad” the shows were being cancelled, while safety protocols were working as planned.
“There was an exclusion zone specifically designed for the drone show, which meant that if there was a technical failure (which happened last night) the drones either crashed into the water or fell within that exclusion zone,” Jones said.
It said it would not participate in demonstrations returning on Sunday (the next scheduled dates) until a full assessment was completed and ruled out deliberate interference with drones, saying operators had considered this as a possibility during initial assessments on Monday night.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said it had been notified of the incident and was gathering further information.
Star-Bound is scheduled to be held Sunday-Wednesday evenings at 7.30pm and 9.30pm during the festival, but the Vivid website notes that performances are weather dependent.
“Prepare to experience a performance you’ve never seen before, as Star-Bound develops drone shows from a series of singular images to tell a larger, poetic story: a celebration of life, creation, hope and renewal,” the event’s description reads.
The drone show was canceled last year due to crowd control issues but returned this year, heralded as Australia’s “most comprehensive” event of its kind. It includes 1,000 purpose-built drones built specifically for large-scale air shows.
In 2023, more than 400 drones fell from the sky into Melbourne’s Yarra River during a light show celebrating the Matildas ahead of the Women’s World Cup, and an ATSB investigation later found wind conditions were to blame.
