NEW YORK – If a drone is on your holiday shopping list, be sure to check your insurance coverage before you crack open that instruction manual and take flight.
Damage from a drone is a bit more complicated than handing your kid a baseball and dealing with the wreckage an errant pitch might cause to a window.
There is no official tally of damage caused by drones, yet the roster of high-profile injuries includes musician Enrique Iglesias and Cleveland Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer. And there are internet lists galore, like a database of known U.S. incidents.
Even the pros can have problems.
A drone operated by Brett Woods, a pilot who co-founded the drone company Aerial Concept Unmanned Systems, was supposed to climb 400 feet, but instead flew into the 27th floor of a building. Luckily, the apartment it breeched was unoccupied, so the damage was chiefly to the drone and the window.
Business insurance covered the damage. But hobbyists and others who buy consumer-level drones cannot be so sure of what is covered if one of their flying devices goes rogue.
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