Fans got a jolt before kickoff Saturday night in Oxford, Mississippi, when a helicopter appeared to slice too close to an ESPN camera drone hovering over the stadium ahead of the Ole Miss-LSU game.
ESPN had the drone in the air to capture overhead shots of the crowd before No. 8 Ole Miss and No.
7 LSU kicked off, and the moment the helicopter passed nearby, the clip spread fast across the internet. People watching at the stadium and online were left debating the same thing: just how close was that?
One social media user who identified himself as a helicopter pilot said the footage set off alarm bells for him. “LSU vs.
Ole Miss. Hard to judge the actual separation from this camera angle, but that helicopter and drone look too close for my comfort,” he wrote.
Others reacted with the same mix of disbelief and relief. “I saw that and thought at first it was some CGI commercial lol,” one person posted.
Another fan said, “I saw that. Now you are telling me it was real.
Man. Thank God nothing bad happened,” while a third asked, “Did the helicopter pilot know about this or no?
Wow, that was VERY close?”
One fan suggested the helicopter may have been in the wrong airspace or at the wrong altitude, and also pointed out that ESPN uses strict procedures for its drones.
The scare came just days after a camera helicopter crashed in Los Angeles, killing three people, including the pilot and a reporter.
In the end, the helicopter and drone did not make contact, and the night moved on without further trouble. Ole Miss then gave its crowd plenty more to talk about, beating LSU 32-24 on a game-sealing interception in the end zone.
That result carried extra weight for Ole Miss fans against former coach Lane Kiffin, who returned to Oxford with LSU after leaving the Rebels right before their playoff run last season.
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