Can Drones Be Dangerous? Possible Injuries By Blades

It seems the role of drones in everyday life is becoming more and more important. Many companies are thinking about innovative solutions with the help of these aircraft.

These devices are offering many new possibilities and fun even for recreational drone pilots. Flying drones and taking pictures and videos is becoming a popular hobby.

As drones became more popular, the governments needed to step in and make some regulations. These flying machines can accelerate even above 50 miles per hour.

So the following question seems to be more than a fair one:

Can drones be dangerous?

Even smaller drones can be dangerous in several ways. Most of the injuries are caused by their blades and their fast movement. Being precautious and respecting the laws about drone usage can decrease the chance of getting injured.

For more detailed information keep reading.

What kind of damage can a drone do?

Unfortunately, there are a lot of possibilities and ways a drone can be dangerous to your health.

Have you ever been hit by a small rock or at least by a stronger snowball?

Even those little objects hitting your head or eyes can hurt you or even make injuries. I know by experience that even a small rock thrown by a 5-year-old can make your head bleed.

There are three main possibilities a drone can hurt humans:

• Injuries by propellers

• Battery malfunction

• The impact power of the device

Injuries by drone propellers

For a long time, I haven’t been afraid of drone propellers at all. To be honest I didn’t thought about being too careful around these aircraft.

But the more I learned about them I found out that a lot of rules and regulations are applied to even hobby drone users.

Based on my experience if an activity is so heavily regulated it could be dangerous too. After a short research, I found out that you can hurt private properties and even people.

For me, it was unobvious how serious injuries can a propeller of a drone cause until I saw pictures of them.

Similar article: can drones see inside my house? can drones see through curtains?

The following injuries are the most possible and common injuries caused by drone blades:

• Cutting yourself with broken propeller blades

• Touching propellers while in action

• Hearing damages caused by propellers

Want to prevent injuries? Read my article about drone propeller guards

Cutting injuries by drone blades

As I already mentioned I would not imagine about touching the blades could make such injuries. When I was a kid I always like to disassemble my old RC cars and use their motors for various handmade machines. I used to make propellers in summer, or even for little boats.

These propellers were made from wood or plastic. Touching the blades was almost a normal thing for me because they could not hurt my fingers.

Find out how to keep drones off your property.

This naive courage was the reason I did not feel any fear from drone propellers. But the truth is that these days drones are made by stronger motors, with stronger batteries.

On the other hand, even the plastic blades are way stronger and thinner too. The combination of these properties is making them fairly dangerous on bigger drones.

If you are unlucky a broken blade in motion can cause even more serious injuries.

Many drones with newer technology are stopping to function if these blades are blocked by an obstacle or object. But you can’t feel comfortable only because of these features.

These blades won’t stop as fast as the famous industrial woodcutter blades in YouTube videos.

Hearing damages caused by propellers

I mentioned the possible hearing injuries by propellers. You can read my article about the noise generation of drones.

The majority of quadcopters are fairly loud, some of them even close to the level that could cause injuries after a longer period. Most drones are generating a noise of around 72-76 decibels.

But as I mentioned in the previous article, most of the time you are away from this level. I think the possibility of getting hearing damage from propellers is negligible.

Battery malfunction

It’s not a common issue, but there is a chance that batteries can overheat and in rare situations even explode.

This phenomenon can be true for any battery, like in your phone for example.

The likelihood of getting your battery overheated is more possible with DIY drones. Making mistakes with self-made drones will more likely cause this kind of problem than one from a well-known company.

Similar article: Do drones need SD Cards?

The impact power of a drone

You might think this is the most dangerous injury a drone can cause. But the reality is a little bit different.

I mentioned my example of being hit by a little rock. The effect can be similar, but in many cases not so powerful.

Being cut by the blades is more possible and in a lot of cases with bigger effects.

The average drone frame is made of plastic or something similar and lightweight material. These aircraft are fairly vulnerable and fragile.

These materials and the drone structure are not rigid and strong enough to cause serious damages by themselves.

On the other hand, their motors are made of metals. A direct hit by a drone of 230 grams can really harm your head for example.

Can drones be dangerous enough to crash planes?

Many regulations are related to visibility, maximum flight height, distance from airports. These were created for serious reasons.

First of all, the answer is a strong yes. Drones can be dangerous enough to cause serious damages to planes. But these damages are serious financial ones only.

The bigger and the faster a drone is, the more drastic damage it can cause. Even the simple and little drones under 250 grams are not negligible.

The possibility of a drone being sucked in an airplane turbine and then causing a crash is negligible. The financial damage could be fairly high, even the motor can fail, but this by itself won’t crash a plane.

The turbines are not the only parts that can be damaged by drones. The windscreens too are fairly vulnerable. They won’t break from a collision with a bird, but a hitting a metal part of a drone with 200+ miles per hour.

These possible crashes are the main reason why almost every country has serious regulations about drone usage. Many countries require a license even for a drone that weighs 60 grams but has a camera on it.

In a lot of cases might seem that these rules are too strict, but I think it’s better to prevent injuries and collisions. Many people are not taking seriously basic laws even while driving cars.

These laws were created to lower the number of drone injuries by educating people about the right usage of these devices.

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