Markus Waldner, the men’s alpine race director at the International Ski Federation (FIS), has said that the governing body will ban the use of drones at events until further notice after a machine carrying a camera nearly hit an athlete during a World Cup event in Italy.
The unmanned flying object crashed just behind Austrian skier Marcel Hirscher during the slalom competition at the Madonna di Campiglio leg of the 2016 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup. Hirscher (pictured) was not hurt as a result of the incident and continued in his run, eventually finishing behind winner Henrik Kristoffersen.
The drone was filming coverage of the World Cup event for the Infront Sports & Media agency, the exclusive rights partner of the FIS.
Speaking to the Associated Press news agency, Waldner said that drones will be prohibited “as long as I am responsible… because they are a bad thing for safety.”
Hirscher added: “This is horrible. This can never happen again. This [could have caused] a serious injury.”
The FIS said that it would work with Infront to undertake “detailed technical analyses” of the incident. The federation will release more information in due course.