Drone News Roundup: Drone Video of Spear Fisherman Battling a Shark, Tokyo Olympics Features Epic Drone Light Show, and More!

This week we’re covering a dramatic drone video of a spear fisherman fighting off a shark while swimming in the ocean.

We’re also covering the incredible drone light show put on by Intel at the Tokyo Olympics, an FPV video of a swimming race, Hubsan’s filing of its Zino Mini Pro with the FCC, and the National Transportation Safety Board seeking authority to investigate drone accidents.

Now on to the links!

Drone Captures Spear Fisherman’s Battle with a Shark

A drone pilot in Australia happened to catch this intense encounter a spear fisherman had with an aggressive shark in the ocean at Bondi Beach. As you can see in the video, the shark continues circling the man as he tries to get it to leave him alone. The video was shot by Matt Woods, who flew his Mavic 2 Zoom out from his balcony near the beach to see if he could spot any wildlife in the water. After seeing the encounter, Matt quickly alerted the lifeguards, who rescued the spear fisherman from the shark before anything bad could happen to him.

SEE MORE DRONE VIDEOS OF SHARKS

Tokyo Olympics Features Stunning Intel Drone Light Show

Last week, Intel put on a drone light show at the Tokyo Olympics with 1,824 drones, which came together to form a giant globe over the main stadium. The entire light show was stunning, and has drawn praise from around the world, bringing drones into the public eye in a positive light yet again. This wasn’t the first time Intel has had a role in the Olympics—in 2018, the company conducted the first ever drone light show at the Winter Olympics, which took place in South Korea and earned Intel a Guinness World Record.

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Fun FPV Video of a Swimming Relay Shot with a Custom Waterproof Drone

We’re seeing more and more CineWhoop-style videos these days, and we love it. This one features a swimming relay race, with the drone swooping past swimmers from the University of California San Diego swim team as they dive into the water. The video was shot by Will Strathmann using a custom-made waterproof FPV drone. Watch to the end to see how the drone’s waterproofing was put to good use.

SEE MORE OF WILL STRATHMANN’S WORK

Hubsan’s Zino Mini Pro Filed with FCC Ahead of Official Launch

New information has recently come to light about Hubsan’s forthcoming Zino Mini Pro following the company’s filing with the FCC. Big picture, it looks like this new drone will compete directly with the DJI Mini 2. In some head-to-head comparisons, the Zino Mini Pro beats the Mini 2. It has 40 minutes of flight time compared to the Mini 2’s 31 minutes, it comes with 3-direction obstacle avoidance, which the Mini 2 doesn’t have, and it also has a bigger sensor than the Mini 2, featuring a 1/1.3-inch 48 MP CMOS camera compared to the Mini 2‘s 1/2.3-inch 12 MP camera. Read the article below to learn more about the Zino Mini Pro, and to see a lot more pictures of this powerful little drone from Hubsan.

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National Transportation Safety Board Seeks Authority to Investigate Drone Accidents

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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) that would expand its authority to investigate drone accidents (you might remember NPRMs from all the fuss last year over the FAA’s Remote ID NPRM). The NTSB currently investigates major accidents that take place involving manned aircraft and unmanned aircraft weighing over 300 pounds—and now they want to eliminate the weight requirement for UAV investigations. In a formal comment on the NPRM, AUVSI questions whether the new rule would actually improve aviation safety, or if it would just generate a lot of investigations that don’t actually need to happen, pointing out that many UAV accidents simply result in the drone being destroyed with no further injury or property damage taking place.

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