A woman at a public event in Beloeil, Quebec, was injured earlier this month when a DJI Phantom 3 camera drone dropped out of the sky and smashed directly into her head. The incident was caught on camera by another drone in the sky and can be seen in the 8 second video above.



VAT News reports that 38-year-old Stéphanie Creignou suffered serious injuries from the 2.7-pound drone and is planning a lawsuit against the drone’s operator. The impact was so violent that Creignou collapsed in the arms of her friend and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was diagnosed with whiplash.

She has not yet returned to work, and says she was forced to cancel a vacation she had been planned with her husband. The drone’s operator, Rosaire Turcotte, says he has no idea how he lost control of the drone.

“Everything was fine. And then suddenly, the drone is gone,” he tells VAT News. “I do not know what happened. I have zero explanation […] I think I have acted in the safest way possible”

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is currently investigating the crash, which is reportedly the first drone-related injury accident that has been reported to officials in Canada.

The footage of the incident was captured by VTOL-X Drones, which was hired by the event organizers to shoot aerial imagery.

“This was an accident that could have easily been avoided, if the person flying the other drone would have followed the basic guidelines set by Transport Canada,” company CEO Flavio Martincowski tells PetaPixel. He says the man was flying without proper permits and was flying very close to where people were gathered. The crash happened just moments after his company questioned the man about these things.

“There will always be the ones don’t follow rules,” Martincowski says. “Drones are not toys, they are tools that could be very helpful to us all, but if misused, it could cause very serious injuries and possibly even death.”