Hi Josh,

I'm afraid we have had to temporarily unpublish the report you submitted to the database. Your report has the date 7 November 2020 instead of 11 July 2020. We have had similar issues with other reports so will look at making the date entry form more user friendly in the future.

Unfortunately we have designed the system so that moderators cannot edit reports in any way. This means we can only republish your report if you resubmit it with the correct date. I would urge you to do this as I believe your description of the drone near miss has value. I have copy pasted your original submission below to make re-entering the information faster for you.

Thanks, Incidents Reporting Team



Date of Incident

**

Country

England

Area

Avon Gorge (Sea Walls Area) (Avon)
Route

Morpheus
Incident

The incident happened in the afternoon at Sea Walls at Avon Gorge and involved a drone. 2 teams were climbing on Morpheus and 1 team on sleep walk. 1 team (us) were waiting at the bottom to start the route once there was sufficient space. Two members of the public were watching the climbing and flying a drone. The drone had been seen previously flying at Main Wall. The drone was piloted to above the belay for pitch 3, circa 60m off the ground, around 10m from the wall. It was my partner on the ground who shouted ‘below’ as the only one who able to see the incident unfolding. The pilot then lost control of the drone and it flew straight into the wall narrowly missing the belayer at pitch 3 (this belayer was very clearly a novice and would not have had the skills required to rescue her leader should he have needed it). The drone, having lost two of its four propellers then fell again narrowly missing a leader on pitch 2 and her belayer. Finally it landed no further than 2m from where I was waiting. One of the leaders was hit by falling debris; no injuries were sustained. The two operating the drone appeared to be oblivious of the seriousness of what could have occurred if the drone had seriously injured any of the climbers.

Lessons

1. All participants were wearing helmets which would have significantly reduced the injuries should it have occurred. This must be continuously reinforced as good practice.
2. Flying of drones should be restricted, but not banned, in the vicinity of crags; licensing and training of pilots is essential.
3. No consent had been given by the climbers to be filmed or have a drone flown close to them; signage at Crags reinforcing this must be considered, especially where public access is easy or common.
4. Drone pilots must have public liability insurance in order to fly drones. (Climbers should have public liability insurance for Cheddar Gorge for example).
5. All climbers involved remained calm throughout, which ultimately portrays our community in a good light.
6. It is widely accepted that novices are taken on multi pitch routes, and that the leader or guide is the only competent person on the route able to solve problems. But the incident highlighted the level of literature or instruction that is available to be a ‘Good Second’ is lacking, and would make me re-consider how I instruct novices on multi pitch routes in the future. Is there space in the BMC’s information videos for the ‘good second’? The Climbing Qualification progression before MIA does not include significant levels of instruction on seconding; conversely Military Qualifications do have a seconding / multi pitch element prior to the equivalent MIA qualification can be reached. Food for thought maybe?
7. Queuing. Teams must be aware of the risks of busy routes and queuing and be content with the additional risk that this exposes you to.

Activity

Trad rock climbing

When

Ascending

Injury

No injury

Rescue Services Involved?

None.

Causes

Falling rock, snow, ice or object

Anonymous?

Yes

Reported By

Participant

Wearing Helmets?

Yes

Dear Josh Conway,

We have reviewed your report dated 07/11/2020 and it has been published at https://www.incidents.thebmc.co.uk/responses/145c8dd2-3952-40b6-9186-3d943ca4798a

Our database suggests your incident/near miss occurred at "Avon Gorge (Sea Walls Area) (Avon)". Please let us know if that is incorrect.

Please consider sharing this link via email or social media so others can learn from your experiences.

Kind regards,

Incidents Reporting Team