Schoolboy’s drone is whipped away by wind
By Maurice Garvey
A YOUNG schoolboy was excited to receive a new drone for Christmas, but that feeling of elation turned to dismay a day later, when high winds captured the device at a local park.
St John’s BNS pupil Eric McLoughlin (11), was in Corkagh Park with his uncle Ross Nolan, to test drive his drone on St Stephen’s Day.
Eric McLoughlin and his uncle Ross Nolan with the recovered drone
However, not long after they directed the model in the air, a gust of wind took the drone far from their grasp, in the direction towards St John’s housing estate.
“It was only five feet off the ground but the breeze caught it and it took flight,” said Niamh McLoughlin, Eric’s Aunt.
“We had to go searching all the bushes for it. Eric was devastated. My little one, Aria [1 year old], was running around trying to find it too like a mad woman.”
In a quirky twist of fate, the drone was discovered by a good Samaritan and Clondalkin resident Jackie Mulvaney, who responded to Niamh’s appeal for information on the lost drone on social media.
Niamh continued: “It turns out the girl who contacted me, Jackie Mulvaney, ended up being my sister-in-law’s cousin – Eric’s second cousin – which was such a small world.
“Eric was delighted and very surprised when he heard someone had it and he was getting it back.”
Jackie said the battery had fallen out but it was in perfect condition, and she was “so glad” to find the owner.
Although the drone has been returned, both Eric and his uncle Ross are “terrified” of losing it again, and playing it safe by flying it “in the house at the minute”, according to Niamh.
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