Many people across our industry have been calling for some years now for better regulation of hobby drones, along with more proactive policing and harder sentencing.  At present the first US court case is progressing where a drone owner has pleaded guilty in a situation where a drone struck a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter.

But this past weekend a worse situation has happened, and as far as the HeliHub.com team know, this is the first time a crew member inside the helicopter has been injured by a drone penetrating the windshield.

The incident concerned occurred on the evening of Saturday 23rd January during a low level coastline patrol flight by the Chilean Navy. The Bell 206B JetRanger III (local designation “UH-57B”) was flying near Santo Domingo in the Valparaiso region of the South American country, approximately 110km west of the capital Santiago, when the incident happened.

After an emergency landing, the crew member was taken for initial treatment at the nearest CESFAM (Centro de Salud Familiar) health facility in Santo Domingo and later transferred to the  Naval Hospital in Viña del Mar.

John Burcote – HeliHub.com

Image: Facebook post