Gary B. Graves
September 05, 2015 - 7:48 PM
LEXINGTON, Ky. - A student's drone crashed into a part of newly renovated Commonwealth Stadium before the Wildcats faced Louisiana-Lafayette in the season opener, Kentucky officials confirmed Saturday.
School spokesman Jay Blanton said via email that the unmanned aircraft was recovered near the suite level. He added that there were no injuries to spectators or damages to the facility, which just underwent a $120 million renovation.
Blanton said school officials have talked to the student and that police are considering what steps to take.
As skydivers parachuted on to the field carrying American flags before kickoff, the drone hovered behind the scoreboard over the west end zone. It was in airspace close to heliports at nearby UK Chandler Hospital and Baptist Hospital.
It was the second incident involving a drone at a sports event in the past week.
An unmanned aircraft plummeted into empty seats and caused a scare during a women's singles match Thursday night at the U.S. Open. No one was injured, but it broke into pieces as it crashed.
A high school science teacher who had been flying the drone from a park outside the tennis venue was arrested Friday on reckless endangerment and other charges, police said.
The Federal Aviation Administration put drone and model-plane enthusiasts on notice last October that it's illegal to fly the aircraft near Major League Baseball, NFL and NCAA Division I college football games and major auto races.
The move came months after police detained people for using small drones at Carolina Panthers and University of Texas football games. This past June, police questioned a man flying a drone near a gate at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia during a Colorado Rockies-Philadelphia Phillies game.
News from © The Associated Press, 2015