It has been reported that a female FPV pilot was sexually assaulted at an event in Europe. The report was shared on the Amelia Droneharts women’s drone group Facebook page. The assault occurred during an October 5th-6th event held in Poland called Dronetech 2nd World Meeting Toruń 2017. The female pilot was flying and wearing her FPV goggles at the time she was assaulted. The attack was witnessed by surrounding event participants who were able to corroborate her story and identify the assailant.

According to the pilot assaulted, the perpetrator grabbed her rear end and said, “I was just checking if you have panties on.” She explained that although there were witnesses, none of them confronted the groper about his inappropriate behavior. The victim stated that Poland tends to fall behind when it comes to sexism and attitudes towards women. Only one of the witnesses, all of whom were male, has stated willingness to testify because he no longer races and doesn’t fear retribution from other event judges.





The pilot immediately reported the incident to an event organizer with Dronetech and expected swift action since the perpetrator was an event judge. The pilot contacted the organizer again after one month passed to follow up on her report. Nothing had been done and the organizer brushed her off saying, “Oh! I thought you didn’t want anyone to say anything.” Although they were not sponsors of this particular event, she decided to contact both FAI and NAC organizations about the assault because the perpetrator is also an event judge for them. She felt they should be aware what had happened to her at Dronetech and feared it happening again to someone else at one of their events. She was told that it was not their problem and asked why she had waited so long to say anything. Beginning in 2018, the FAI requested that national teams of five pilots must each include at least one junior pilot and one female pilot. This policy is worrisome if the FAI organization is not willing to take complaints of sexual harassment seriously.





This is not acceptable. This is not how you attract more women into the FPV community. Most important, this is not how you treat women and fellow human beings. This could have been your sister, your wife or your daughter. This could have been you or me. If you think that Dronetech, FAI, and NAC should ban the assailant from all future events, you may contact them and let them know.





This pilot should not have to endure attending another race with this unethical judge present and no women should have to participate in an event where he is in attendance. And I want to know, when is it ever okay to touch a pilot anywhere while they are flying? This is a huge distraction to any pilot, could cause accidents, and if done during a race could be considered sabotaging the pilots chance to succeed or win, regardless of gender.





Although the pilot who made the report wanted initially to keep this matter within the organization, inaction on the part of event organizers inspired her to come public with her ordeal. When asked what motivated her, she stated,”I won’t let it happen. Never again, to anyone.”





Addendum: A few people have had questions as to why the police were not immediately called. It’s my understanding that there has been a push by at least one of the organizations involved to bring drones to the Olympics. She felt a public scandal might tarnish the FPV community and harm these efforts. She wanted to handle it internally and expected organizers would do the correct thing and remove the man from their future events. When this did not happen, she contacted an attorney who explained that trying to prosecute would be a long, hard, expensive fight with no guarantee of winning, discouraging her from continuing that route. In addition, the political and social climate towards women can vary greatly from country to country. This did not happen in the United States. What might be an effective recourse for American women may not work out the same for other women around the globe.



The names of the victim and perpetrator were left out intentionally. The purpose of sharing this story is not for either of them to receive death threats or threats of bodily harm, but to bring attention to the problem and pressure event organizers to remove this person from future events. The organizers know who they are.





Dronetech





NAC





FAI



