[Rockhounds] Drone is Swallowed by a Volcano

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Photographer and filmmaker Joey Helms ventured to Iceland in order to
capture footage of the volcanic eruption there. During a pass over the
mouth of the volcano, his DJI FPV was swallowed by lava and lost forever.

As noted by Helms, first-person view drones — or FPV for short — are very
much prone to crashes. Part of DJI’s pitch
<https://petapixel.com/2021/03/02/dji-launches-the-fpv-drone-shoot-4k-60-fps-video-at-87mph/>
for
its aptly-named FPV drone was that it was not only durable but would be
supported with easily replaceable parts to address any crashes that would
assuredly happen to even the most seasoned pilot as evidenced during
*PetaPixel’s* own review of the DJI FPV drone
<https://petapixel.com/2021/03/04/dji-fpv-review-a-racing-drone-for-the-non-racing-pilot/>.
When a drone can fly at up to 87 miles per hour while also taking tight
turns and performing aerial stunts, crashes are pretty much unavoidable.

“FPV drones are notorious for crashing, it is part of the hobby,” Helms
says. “So in an effort to get a unique vantage point and perspective into
the crater, we flew this remarkably capable drone as close to the lava
river and caldera as possible. One of them turned out to be its very last
flight. At least the goggles record a great 1080p image allowing us to
actually capture the last seconds the drone saw.”

https://petapixel.com/2021/06/01/watch-in-first-person-as-a-dji-drone-is-swallowed-by-a-volcano/