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Horse put down after drone causes accident in Zermatt

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Horse put down after drone causes accident in Zermatt
Horse-drawn carriages are a common sight in Zermatt. File photo: Dennis Jarvis

A horse had to be put down after being spooked by a drone outside a luxury hotel in Zermatt, according to a local paper.

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The horse was one of two attached to a carriage that was stationary outside the Grand Hotel Zermatterhof last week, reported the Walliser Bote.
 
Seeing a drone overhead, the horses panicked and took flight down a path behind the hotel at such a pace that the 1.5 ton carriage fell over. 
 
One of the horses suffered several fractures and had to be put down as a consequence, Andreas Biner, the president of the community that owns the hotel, told the paper.
 
No one was injured in the incident.
 
While Biner stressed that that accident was “exceptional”, the authorities are now considering how to better prepare animals to cope with drones. 
 
According to Swiss law, no permit is needed to fly a drone that weighs under 30kg, although the pilot must always keep the drone in sight and it should not be flown over gatherings of people. 
 
Horse-drawn carriages are a common sight in car-free Zermatt, often used by hotels to pick up guests from the train station.
 

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