A recent drone incident in Seattle may serve as a lesson about the need to fly unmanned aircraft safely.
An unnamed Amazon employee who came to Seattle to test out his new quad-copter drone ended up flying the machine into a window Tuesday while capturing views of the city and the Space Needle with a built-in camera, according to CNET.
The drone was being operated from 500 to 600 feet above the ground. While the video has been taken down from YouTube, a few Vines of the footage from the drone were found by Buzzfeed.
Witnesses told Seattle police they saw the aircraft fly into a fifth-floor room of a hotel close by, the Associated Press reported. The cops contacted the man, who admitted he was operating the machine, which he got from a hobby shop, and told them he wanted to try it out.
While reports were given to police about the drone crashing into the landmark of Seattle's 1962 World's Fair, they did not find any evidence of the accident.
The report said the drone was safely back at the hotel by the time police arrived. The man showed the police the footage he captured, and they let him go with a soft warning to never fly his drone around Seattle again, CNET reported.
The U.S. has placed heavy restrictions on the use of commercial drones. The Federal Aviation Administration is working on guidelines for safety, navigations, communications, privacy and air traffic control to make sure civilians can operate the aircraft correctly. Amazon is currently working on UPS drones that can deliver packages to peoples' houses.
