5 drone fails that will make you cringe

Lets face it, flying a drone isn’t always that easy. If you’re a first time pilot, you’ll quickly find that machines don’t always respond when you demand, or other the other side of the token, maybe they respond too quickly. Both can be the case when we observe the famous drone ‘fail’. Drone fails can happen anytime, anywhere and luckily for you, the viewer, it’s generally caught on tape.

Enjoy these 5 drone fails that will make you cringe. Because if you don’t cringe, you can rest assured the person ‘failing’ did plenty of cringing.

1. Water-skiing drone fail

Nooooo! ••• ? @droneporn ••• #droneoftheday

A video posted by Full Drone (@fulldrone) on

Make no mistake, this video had all the makings of a summer action blockbuster. A day at the lake. A drone. Some ‘never-before-scene’ angles of the athletes getting rad behind a boat. The woman being pulled as going to drop the rope and really get after it…but as she flings the rope, the only thing left to catch it are the water and the the drone. The drone loses. The internet rejoices. This is still one of the most popular videos on the FullDrone Instagram account (via @droneporn).

2. The drone that was almost part of the reef

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Instagram / @the_dronehub

A very quick glance at this you may think it’s a new drone-skin color concept. When, in reality, it’s the aftermath of an earlier fail posted by @the_dronehub on Instagram. They write: Sunken treasure of Thailand’s coastline. Looks like that phantom was going to become part of the reef.”

3. Race track drone tragedy

Ohhhhhh hell noooooo! ••• ? @braddeberti70 Ever wonder what happens when you hit a drone head on over a 200ft jump? @jcfilms85

A video posted by Full Drone (@fulldrone) on

This is an epic, epic fail. I wouldn’t even mark it down as a fail more as a riveting success. Yes, a car smashes it a Phantom on a 200 foot jump, but the last seconds of footage before the drone becomes track toast is downright awesome. Check it out for yourself and be sure to tell @braddeberti70 how good of a job he’s done.

4. Watch for falling drones

“Hey, let’s get an extreme closeup of that guy.”

A video posted by Lifestylez SnoDaze (@lifestylez_snodaze) on

Professional downhill skiers have enough to worry about – like death – if they take a nasty enough spill. But add an out of control drone to the mix, your skier’s life has just fallen more in danger. It’s what Defending World Cup champion Marcel Hirscher experienced when he was attending a World Cup slalom race at Madonna di Campiglio in Italy when a remote-controlled drone with a mounted camera slammed down on the piste inches behind him. He survived…the drone clearly did not. He later posted on his Instagram profile: “heavy air traffic in Italy”. (via @Lifestylez_snodaze)

5. Til’ death do us part (even if by a drone)

What. The. Hell. Would you hire this guy to shoot your wedding video? You better take out an insurance policy first. This was posted by WeddingMan123 on YouTube and we’ll let him explain what happened:

Ok so here’s the story. This was shot using a DJI phantom and a gopro camera. This was two days before the wedding at their bridal shoot. This happened towards the beginning. I had done one successful fly by and i brought it around for another pass to make sure it was smooth.

I underestimated the lift time and it hit the groom on the side of the face. He had a cut on his cheek and and the side of his head. I felt horrible. Luckily the bride and groom were able to laugh about it after and we continued the shoot. At the request of the bride and groom I put the video online. All though it sucks that this happened.  I have decided to own up to what I did, instead of try to hide it from the world.”

Bravo for owning up to it. We recommend getting into real estate. Yikes!


Have an outrageous drone fail?

If so, we’d love to see it and add it to this website. Feel free to contact us with a link or hashtag #FullDrone or mention @FullDrone on the social channels and we’ll be on the lookout. Meanwhile, LOOK OUT!