DJI and ABC Fly Drones Over Volcano in Iceland
DJI’s Eric Cheng and his team have flown a Phantom 2 equipped with a GoPro into – or more like over – a volcano before. In fact, that video made it into the Top 10 videos of last year here on Dronethusiast based on your votes. It came in No. 10, so just made onto the list, but another drone video from Iceland finished right on top of the list. I guess relatively tiny Iceland is becoming a hot (pun intended) place for shooting aerial videos using multicopters and quite possibly the best place to fly drones over volcanos.
This time, Eric and ABC Television’s Good Morning America team headed back to Iceland again to fly a couple of Inspire 1-s over the erupting Bardarbunga Volcano which is actually the same one Eric and DJI flew the Phantoms “into”. The volcano is located on the northern edge of the Vatnajokull Glacier and National Park. The Vatnajokull Glacier is, at over 5,000 square miles, the largest glacier in Iceland, covering 10 percent of the country.
“The volume of the lava is the largest we’ve seen in Iceland for 230 years,” said Bjorn Oddsson, geophysicist for the National Icelandic Civil Protection.
The pictures captured by the drones showed the lava bubbling inside the crater and even erupting into a wall of fire. “It’s changing every few months and we couldn’t have done this just a few months ago,” Cheng said of drone technology. Well, his last flight over Bardarbunga was back last fall with drones that cost one third of the price of the Inspire 1 and have been around for a couple of years already, but great footage anyway.
The Bardarbunga volcano became active in August 2014 and erupted in September. Authorities believe it may stop next month and stress it does not pose an immediate threat to humans because of its location.
Source: ABC News
Eric Cheng of DJI and ABC Television's Good Morning America team went to Iceland to fly drones over a volcano.
Kennedy Martinez
kennedy@dronethusiast.comKennedy Martinez is a resident writer who joined Dronethusiast at the beginning of 2019. She has years of experience reviewing drones and other tech products. When it comes to flying drones, Kennedy loves the ability to create artistic videos from a unique point of view. Kennedy enjoys researching new drones and other exciting products that are available to consumers which is why she is committed to creating the best buyer's guides for our readers.
Isnt it awesome that you can do that there, but not in the US? Oh yeah.. Awesome.
That’s the American way! Nice flight!