Video: Drones Becoming Popular for Local Businesses

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COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) — They’ve been used by the military for some time, now civilians are taking advantage of drone technology.

With one, you can see hundreds of feet in the air.

“You can get in places to where you’d normally have to have, you know, super tall ladders, crane lifts, or look on top of buildings,” said videographer Richard Eairheart.

Drones are more than just toy planes. For Eairheart, using them is part of his job.

“We love it,” he said. “It’s easy to fly.”

For that reason, Eairheart says these types of drones are becoming more popular for residents and local businesses, but they can be a safety issue. Not everyone gets training on how to use them properly.

“Think about somebody inexperienced or even experienced, flying one of these over Highway 45 during heavy business traffic,” Eairheart said. “It crashes into somebody’s car, or somebody looking up, they’re not watching what they’re doing. That’s worse than texting and driving.”

As drones continue to become more popular, they raise privacy concerns.

Eairheart doesn’t see that as an issue – at least for this area.

“The cameras that go on these have a really wide angle, so they’re zoomed out really far, so there’s really not a whole lot that you can see unless you fly it right up to somebody’s window or into their property.”

But he says it’s only a matter of time before they’ll be regulated.

“As far as I know right now, as long as you’re under a certain ceiling, and you’re not selling the footage to anybody, then you’re free to do it, but that could all change in a month.”

For now, all we can do is enjoy the bird’s eye view until that happens.

Categories: Local News

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