In a case that highlights the sharp legal and safety stakes when drones operate near crowds, a Queens woman filed suit earlier this year after being struck by a DJI drone during a Fourth of July drone-and-fireworks display in New York.
Cherika Sukhnandan says she was watching the Macy’s Independence Day show from a fourth-floor balcony in 2023 when a drone veered off course and struck her. Her complaint says the collision caused “severe shock and mental anguish” and significant physical injury that she alleges are permanent.
Sukhnandan’s complaint names a wide set of defendants: the City of New York; Macy’s and various Macy’s corporate entities; event producers and pyrotechnic firms; broadcast partners; production companies and named individuals; and unnamed drone operators. The suit alleges the parties planned, controlled, inspected, repaired and otherwise managed the drone operations connected to the show — and failed to prevent what the complaint calls a “rogue drone strike.”…