I was excited because my in-laws have a spacious suburban backyard. It’s roughly half an acre, protected on three sides by high walls of trees. I’m used to flying in my tiny Brooklyn backyard and in public parks where I need to keep an eye out for other people, dogs, and stray kites.

A few weeks ago, my wife, two sons, and I got out of the city and visited my in-laws. I brought along my DJI Phantom drone, the Vision 2 model . My older son is nearly two, and he loves to watch it fly, although he sometimes has to hide behind my legs in fear when it comes close during a landing.

I flew the Phantom a couple of times the first day without incident. There was a lot of wind, and I didn’t feel comfortable taking it above 100 feet. I’ve flown the unit much higher than that before, but in much nicer weather. I was also having some trouble with the GPS lock. The light would go green after takeoff, and the GPS would help me stabilize against the wind for the most part, but occasionally it cut out, and the lights would blink red for 10 or 20 seconds, before finding the signal again. This is how horror movies happen I didn’t think much about the GPS. I have flown the Phantom without it before, while shooting video indoors. I didn’t have any plans to fly it far away or out of my line of sight. I chalked it up to the location, which also happens to be a total dead zone for cell service. I didn’t think much about the GPS. I have flown the Phantom without it before, while shooting video indoors. I didn’t have any plans to fly it far away or out of my line of sight. I chalked it up to the location, which also happens to be a total dead zone for cell service. The next day I took the Phantom out in the middle of the afternoon. I was about 50 feet off the ground, doing some speed runs to the tree line and back. At some point the GPS signal must have dropped again, because the light switched from green to red. I brought the unit to a halt, hovering it in front of me. Instead of fighting the wind, I doubled down A strong gust of wind came through and suddenly the Phantom was drifting quickly towards my in-laws' house. Without GPS, the unit wasn’t correcting for this at all, and I didn’t want to break any windows. So I tried to correct hard back against the wind, but the breeze had also rotated the unit, and my orientation was off. Instead of fighting the wind, I actually doubled down, accelerating the unit over the house and out towards the road in front. A strong gust of wind came through and suddenly the Phantom was drifting quickly towards my in-laws' house. Without GPS, the unit wasn’t correcting for this at all, and I didn’t want to break any windows. So I tried to correct hard back against the wind, but the breeze had also rotated the unit, and my orientation was off. Instead of fighting the wind, I actually doubled down, accelerating the unit over the house and out towards the road in front. At this point I panicked. I couldn’t see the drone and wasn’t sure how to recover. So I decided the best thing to do was go to ground. I killed the rotors and listened with horror to the sound of my Phantom impacting into concrete. I think all this happened in less than two or three seconds.

I came running around to the front of the house and found a woman on a bike, stopped by the side of the road. On the back was a small child in a bike seat. Both were wearing helmets. My Phantom was strewn across the road in several pieces. It was hard to tell how far in front of the drone they had been when it came down, but they were clearly shocked. A few seconds earlier, a few feet to the other side, and it could easily have come down on them instead. There is no way to say exactly what would have happened, but a heavy object falling out of the sky, striking someone in the head, at which point they crash their bike, certainly could have ended in serious injury or worse. A few feet to the left, and who knows "I’m so sorry!" I repeated profusely, as I gathered up the pieces of my drone. The woman and her child just sort of stared in shock, as if they had seen a UFO. They didn’t respond to my repeated apologies, and eventually she simply turned and biked away. I went back into the house, shaken and upset. I felt ashamed of my poor piloting, my poor decision making, and a mixture of guilt and fear at the near accident. I resolved then and there never to fly the drone anywhere even close to other people and without a GPS lock. This thing is not a toy, I reminded myself; it’s an aircraft.