Transport Canada investigates viral Ottawa ‘drone attack’ video
Adam Fiebal
The three men from Constance Bay whose YouTube video of a drone attacking them with fireworks have now caught heat from Transport Canada.
Andy Stewart, his brother Jason and their buddy Matt Trueman are the daredevils whose aerial mischief caught the Internet’s attention after Andy Stewart mounted Roman candles on a camera-equipped drone and pursued his brother and friend with it while launching the fireworks at them. He then uploaded the GoPro video to YouTube.
The clip, which runs around 90 seconds, shows one of the targets lighting fireworks on the drone before rushing out onto the snowy surface of the frozen bay, the drone in hot pursuit.
The video has been viewed more than a million times.
But it also caught the attention of Canada’s federal transportation watchdog. A spokesman said Thursday that Transport Canada was “looking into this incident.”
“Using a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) to carry hazardous payloads such as pyrotechnics and explosives, or any payload that can be jettisoned, dispersed, or dropped, is extremely dangerous,” said Daniel Savoie.
Operators of commercial and research UAVs are prohibited from doing so without a special flight operating certificate (SFOC), he said, which is not required for recreational users unless their drone weighs more than 35 kilograms.
“However, using a UAV in a reckless and negligent manner could potentially cause damage, injuries, or fatalities, which can result in lawsuits, fines, and jail time,” said Savoie.
He did not however indicate whether the men in the video were facing those repercussions.
Andy Stewart said Thursday that he hadn’t had any calls from Transport Canada, but he had the feeling that they might take issue with the fiery stunt.
“We were just having fun, not doing anything to hurt anybody,” he said. “I’m not too worried. We’ll see what happens, I guess.”
Stewart said he might limit his drone use to more traditional forms, such as filming sports for his YouTube channel.
“I might just not use drones so much with fireworks,” he said. “Maybe as long as the roman candle is not on the drone, they might like that some more.”
