Workers Recover Drone Stuck on 115,000-volt Power Line

(Source: Seattle Times)

A drone stuck in a power line over Lake Union’s Mallard Cove for nearly a week came down Saturday, at a cost of nearly $35,000to Seattle City Light.

The drone had become a nuisance to the houseboat tenants in Mallard Cove because of a loud buzzing it created hanging off the 115,000-volt transmission line — and it also decreased the efficiency of the line, said Seattle City Light spokesman Scott Thomsen.

But getting it down was not as simple as driving a bucket truck underneath the line and plucking off the drone, since the power lines are 120 feet in the air above Lake Union houseboats.

“We don’t tend to do much work above the water — that is one of the things that made this a particularly unusual job,” Thomsen said.

Before recovering the drone, City Light had to shut off the power running through the transmission line and reroute it to another area, then rent a “transmission line carriage” — a basket that can hang on power lines — and put it in place.

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