The drone’s propellers were already spinning when the young man decided to climb aboard.
It happened near Puerto Gaitán, in Colombia’s Meta region. A group of agricultural workers filmed the scene as the teenager settled inside a compartment of the unmanned aircraft, just a few centimeters from the moving blades. The drone took off from a boat on the river, and he remained there, suspended in the air, for more than a full minute. His companions kept laughing as they filmed.
The video began circulating on August 26 and soon reached the authorities. Colombia’s Civil Aeronautics Authority described the incident as an unacceptable risk, both for the young man and for those on the ground, as well as for other nearby aircraft. Colombian law expressly prohibits transporting living beings on this type of platform, so authorities are now investigating whether sanctions were involved. On social media, meanwhile, people were divided between those who condemned him as reckless and those who celebrated it as a feat.