Forty-eight drones fell from the sky soon after takeoff during a special drone show at the Taiwan Lantern Festival on Saturday night due to electromagnetic interference, the Taichung City Scenic Area Administration said yesterday.
The fallen drones, which were later located at the Taichung City Hou-Zong Senior High School, did not cause any injuries, the administration said.
The show, which was one of the highlights of the festival, featured 800 drones portraying images in the night sky, from a girl drinking bubble tea and the Houfeng bicycle lane to the city’s name written in English.
Photo: Ou Su-mei, Taipei Times
The team controlling the drones detected the interference before the show and tried to resolve the problem, which delayed the show by about five minutes, administration Director Liao Wei-chih (廖偉志) said.
“However, we found that the interference continued after the show began, which caused some of the drones to fall from the sky soon after takeoff,” Liang said in an interview with reporters.
The administration suspects that the interference was caused by other drones flying in the area, Liao said.
It was also possible that some people were using other radio-frequency devices near the venue, which caused interference, he said.
As the show was to be presented again at the festival’s closing ceremony last night if weather permitted, the Taichung City Government said that it asked telecommunication police to help identify the origin of any electromagnetic interference.
The contractor in charge of the show estimated that the crash would cause a loss of about NT$3 million (US$98,674).
Some drone operators told local Chinese-language media that interference could happen if the frequency used by the drones exceeds the frequency assigned to them, which might have caused part of the frequency used by the drones to overlap with that used by other radio-frequency devices.
Strong winds might also have caused the drones to collide and crash, they said.
Others said that the interference could be deliberately produced by drone operators in protest against the government’s new regulations, which are scheduled to take effect on March 31.
Taichung only allows a limited number of fly zones for drone operators, which they said was unreasonable.
Telecommunications police said they can track the origin of unknown signals with detector guns and the National Communications Commission’s telecommunications signal monitoring vehicles.
Such vehicles were used to catch people who tried to cheat in government-administered exams using electronic gadgets, they said.
A study published by online booking platform Expedia revealed searches for travel to Taipei have ballooned 2,786 percent following the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions due to the city being a “designation dupe” for Seoul. The TikTok trend for duping — referring to substituting a designation for a more inexpensive alternative — helped propel interest in Taipei, it said in a consumer survey titled “Unpack ‘24,” which was conducted from September to October in 14 countries. Location dupes are “every bit as delightful as the tried-and-true places travelers love,” Expedia trend tracker Melanie Fish said of the year’s popular alternatives, which
SAFETY IN REGULATION: The proposal states that Chiayi should assess whether it is viable to establish such a district and draft rules to protect clients and sex workers The Chiayi City Council passed a motion yesterday to assess the viability of establishing a regulated red-light district. The council yesterday held its last session of the year, at which its fiscal 2024 budget was approved, along with 61 other proposals. The proposal to assess the viability of establishing a red-light district was put forward by independent Chiayi City Councilor Molly Yen (顏色不分藍綠支持性專區顏色田慎節). The proposal cited 2011 amendments to the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), which stipulate that city and county governments can pass autonomous regulations on the sex trade to manage the industry and guarantee industry workers’ rights. A ban on the
A small-scale protest that called on the government to cancel its plan to welcome Indian migrant workers in a bid to tackle Taiwan’s labor shortage was held in Taipei yesterday. During the protest, comprised of a few dozen people staged in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard, the protest’s chief initiator, a woman identified only as “Yuna” said they wanted the central government to reconsider allowing migrant workers from India to enter Taiwan. Most people in Taiwan had little knowledge about the potential plan to allow in Indian migrant workers until a report in the media last month, she
STABILITY AND CHANGE: Flagging in recent polls, Ko this week pledged to maintain President Tsai’s foreign policy, with an emphasis on improving China relations Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday reiterated that he is “deep-green at heart” in response to accusations that he is pivoting his campaign to align closer with the ideology of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the face of flagging polls. Ko made the remark at an agricultural policy conference in Taipei, repeating his comments from an interview with CTS News a day earlier. Ko told the CTS host that he would continue to pursue President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) national defense and foreign policy in general, but with an emphasis on establishing a rapport with
RSS