The Orlando drone show crash was caused by a combination of errors that led to a misaligned flight path, according to the NTSB report.

On Thursday, the National Transportation Safety Board released its preliminary report on the Florida drone show that occurred last month, which resulted in some aircraft malfunctioning and causing a little boy to sustain serious injuries.

On Dec. 21, 2024, at Lake Eola Park in Orlando, a Christmas light show put on by Sky Elements resulted in a mishap. During the aerial show, several drones flew out of formation and collided with one another before falling to the ground. Hundreds of people were watching the show when the incident occurred.

A rogue drone hit a 7-year-old boy in the face and chest, causing him to lose consciousness. The boy's parents stated that he needed open-heart surgery after the incident.

The NTSB's preliminary report found that "combined errors" before the show's start caused a misaligned flight path, resulting in chaos for several of the 500 drones during the performance.

The report stated that the remote pilot in charge confirmed that the setup for the show was standard and included preflight checks to ensure that the software programming was updated on all show computers and the layout of the 500-drone grid on the ground matched.

Initially, approximately five drones were not accepting the launch data, but troubleshooting of the Wi-Fi access points led to all 500 drones showing up on the network five minutes before the show was set to start, according to the NTSB.

To guarantee that all drones were "show ready," a soft reboot was performed. Following the reboot, two drones were removed from the show because their systems were not displaying green. After the removal of these drones, they were armed and the countdown to liftoff was initiated.

"The report noted that the aircraft's "layers" did not lift uniformly at liftoff. Further investigation revealed that the launch parameter file with the final flight paths was not sent, and the show center was not fully aligned."

The drones shifted positions and altitude while moving to the first frame of animation, resulting in a collision and loss of control. Several drones crashed to the ground, and one flew towards the audience.

The remote pilot in charge of the show informed the NTSB that the safest course of action was to continue with the show after assessing the steps required to pause it and retrieve the drones from the air. The remaining drones were able to complete the show and land safely.

The pilot's review of aircraft logs showed that the show's position had shifted by 7 degrees, causing the "geo hard fence to be too close to the audience." Additionally, the fence was not set to the company's standard of 1 meter and was instead at 5 meters.

The safety area, which was outside of the company's standards, was reduced due to the combined errors, according to the report.

The operator retrieved approximately 42 impacted drones and sent their SD cards to the NTSB's Vehicle Recorder Lab for analysis. Law enforcement personnel also found one drone and sent it to the NTSB. Unfortunately, five drones were believed to have fallen into the lake and were not recovered.

Sky Elements has proposed additional safety actions to the Federal Aviation Administration in order to prevent future problems, including allowing more time on site prior to a show, requiring a chief pilot or second in command to verify all steps are completed before the show, and providing additional training for all pilots.

The FAA suspended Sky Elements' waiver, which permits drone shows nationwide, restricting their ability to perform near crowds and at night.