It has fairly well publicized that drones will be patrolling the skies over this month’s World Cup matches but nobody said anything about flying in the stadiums…until now.
On Wednesday, a drone was spotted flying over a private practice session of the French World Cup team in Ribeirao Preto. France’s team manager Didier Deschamps has called for an investigation into who was flying the drone and why, concerned that it could be a party doing some not-so-subtle recon for France’s opponents (France is in Group E along with Switzerland, Honduras, and Ecuador).
Infosport+ tweeted this image of the drone, which appears to be a DJI Phantom, on Wednesday:
@infosportplus l équipe de France surveiller par un ovni au Brésil lol ( drone ) #AllezLesBleus @equipedefrance pic.twitter.com/RbyHzhid0V
— Fzh of city (@OfFzh) June 10, 2014
According to Business Insider, the tweet translates roughly to, “A drone flies over the Blues during training,” referring to a colloquial name for the French soccer team. It also alludes to an investigation.
BFMTV has reported that the drone was not Honduran.
In fact, the report mentions the pilot of the drone was arrest shortly after the flight and said he is simply a fan wanting to get closer to the action.
Earlier this week, we acknowledged that drones were going to be used in Rio de Janeiro during this month’s World Cup. The drones in question, Elbit Systems Hermes 900, were purchased for security purposes by the Brazilian government and were going to be flown high above the the fields; apparently for one fan, that just wasn’t close enough.
Alan is serial entrepreneur, active angel investor, and a drone enthusiast. He co-founded DRONELIFE.com to address the emerging commercial market for drones and drone technology. Prior to DRONELIFE.com, Alan co-founded Where.com, ThinkingScreen Media, and Nurse.com. Recently, Alan has co-founded Crowditz.com, a leader in Equity Crowdfunding Data, Analytics, and Insights. Alan can be reached at alan(at)dronelife.com
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