NEWS: GoPro Karma Recall & London Drone Restrictions

It's been another busy week for drone news (and we're only halfway through!) with GoPro recalling the Karma, airspace restrictions in force on Remembrance Day and Disney jumping on the drone bandwagon. So, without further ado here's our rundown of the biggest stories from the past few days.

GoPro Recalling the Karma

GoPro has announced a total recall of the Karma drone. They stated that they have sold 2,500 units since launching their first entry into the drone market, all of which have now been recalled. It's worth noting that they conveniently chose to release this statement during the US Presidential Election. They have cited a power failure malfunction as the reason although they haven't been forthcoming with how many experienced this error. There are numerous examples of irregular behaviour from the Karma to be found online, but it's not clear whether these are due to the recall error.

GoPro's founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman released the following statement: “Safety is our top priority. A very small number of Karma owners have reported incidents of 'power failure' during operation. We have moved quickly to recall all units of Karma and provide a full refund while we investigate the issue." "****We are working in close coordination with both the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Federal Aviation Administration. We are very sorry to have inconvenienced our customers and we are taking every step to make the return and refund process as easy as possible.” This certainly isn't the best time for this to happen as GoPro announced that they have missed their revenue expectations by 23% last week. According to their recall announcement, all customers affected by this issue are eligible for a full refund.

Drone Restrictions for Remembrance Day

The CAA has announced flight restrictions over London during Remembrance Sunday (13th November 2016).

Disney Plans A Magical Drone Christmas

Disney has received an exemption from the FAA to allow a light show put on by drones to take place over the holiday season. This is another example of huge companies turning to the advantages of drones, this time for entertainment value. This will involve a fleet of drones working in tandem to create a visual spectacle in the sky above the park which will take the place of their traditional firework displays. It will be interesting to see if it proves to be a success, if so, we may be seeing a lot more aerial traffic above the 'Happiest Place on Earth'. To get you in the festive mood here's their teaser for what they're billing as: 'A New Holiday Experience Coming to Disney Springs':

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