Drone footage gives us a unique new way of looking at the world. Not long ago, the average person didn’t have the means to observe life from above. Drones, however, offer a relatively cheap and accessible bird’s-eye view to almost anyone. YouTube is full of stunning aerial footage of landscapes and other drone eye candy. But you’ll also find some pretty weird drone videos out there.
From clowns in unexpected places to a too-close shark encounter to a sobering tour of Chernobyl, YouTube offers some disturbing drone footage. Ominous music often contributes to the unsettling mood.
Some of these videos might be hoaxes, but many of the creepiest things captured by drones are all too real.
Bigfoot sightings are common in the Pacific Northwest, but Salt Fork State Park in Ohio allegedly boasts its own Sasquatch. The storied ape-like creature, a rumored resident of the Buckeye State since the Revolutionary War, has been sighted almost 40 times in the park since the mid-’80s.
In 2017, a drone operator claims to have spotted Bigfoot while flying his craft over the park and has the video to prove it. In the video, look to the left of the screen to see a black figure with arms raised at the 1:49 mark. But is it Sasquatch or an errant hiker?
The black-eyed children of Cannock Chase Forest in Staffordshire, England, are rumored to be the ghosts of those who succumbed to a diphtheria outbreak in the 1800s. They’re also said to be the victims of Raymond Morris, who took the lives of several children in the 1960s.
Cannock Chase is supposedly rife with paranormal activity, and a quadcopter drone may have recorded one of the Cannock Chase ghosts as it flew past. See how quickly you can spot the young girl in the white dress.
Sometimes a drone has to take one for the team, especially if the team is made up of National Geographic explorers and scientists. Watch as they sacrifice two drones to get up close and personal with the very active Marum Crater on the Ambrym volcano in Vanuatu.
The volcano has a 7.5-mile-wide caldera, and its active craters contain ever-flowing lava lakes.
In 2016, tourists traveling to Dirk Hartog Island in Western Australia had experience of a lifetime: They watched as a group of tiger sharks ripped apart a humpback whale carcass and turned the blue waters around them bright red.
Abrolhos Cruises sent up a drone to record the incident, calling the spectacle “something to show and tell the grandchildren.”
Kelly Lopez of Huntsville, AL, took his drone for a spin over a cornfield and discovered a strange visitor: a clown. You can’t miss the orange-haired figure, who appears about a minute into the video before spotting the drone and running into a wooded area nearby.
The video might be a hoax, but if it’s not, this footage confirm that clowns are downright creepy.
Messing with a mob of kangaroos isn’t the best idea, as this drone operator found out. Sure, they’re cute, but they’re solid muscle and can incapacitate a person or drone in seconds flat. Watch as one annoyed mama ‘roo slaps down a buzzing drone to protect her baby at the 24-second mark.
It’s not clear if the drone operator attempted to rescue the lost craft.
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred in April 1986, leaving the city of Pripyat and the surrounding area a ghost town. Some 120,000 people were evacuated, never to return. Chernobyl’s atomic reactor burned for over a week and sent radiation into the atmosphere and around the world.
The area is once again teeming with wildlife but is still eerily absent of humans; everything remains the way it was the day residents left. Watch as a drone captures the abandoned area’s haunting beauty.
On a warm summer morning in Portsmouth, RI, one man found a little peace and quiet at the top of a 175-foot-high wind turbine. Drone operator Kevin Miller spotted Benedictine monk Brother Joseph Byron catching some cool breeze on the turbine.
Byron said he’s been climbing the turbine for over a decade for a little alone time, and no, he’s not afraid of heights.
In August 2015, more than 100 people were killed when explosions rocked Tianjin in northern China. The blast occurred at a port warehouse that contained hazardous and flammable chemicals. Nitrocellulose overheated and ignited the flames, causing a chain reaction and eventual devastation to the area.
A drone captured the aftermath of the explosion, revealing widespread damage.
What you don’t know won’t hurt you. Or will it? In one drone video, surfers from South Africa don’t realize they’re paddling around in the company of sharks. Another surfer sent up the drone before braving the water himself. He claims he was nearly knocked off his surfboard by a shark the day before.
His video captures humans and predators practically side by side in the water. Thankfully, no injuries or deaths were reported.
Bike sharing has become a popular form of transportation around the world. In China, however, the supply of bikes is considerably greater than the demand. Add regulations from local governments to stem the tide of bikes on streets, and you end up with abandoned, forgotten, and never-used bikes sitting in graveyards across the country.
Wu Guoyong captured drone footage of 15 of the country’s massive bike graveyards. The photographer said he thinks shared bikes are “useful, but the cemeteries expose a moral problem in the landscape of China. We’re throwing away bikes! That just doesn’t seem right.”
This drone footage of sheep being herded in Australia has been sped up to give it a more hypnotic feel. Beyond creating an artistic look at sheep, drones serve a useful herding purpose. Some farmers have even started using drones to direct sheep from point A to point B.
Drones are fast and loud, so sheep and cattle respond to them. The machines also help farmers keep an “eye” on the animals.
In February 2017, as waters rose at Lake Berryessa in California’s Napa Valley, the Glory Hole spillway started doing its job, and the Lake Berryessa News used a drone to capture the mesmerizing whirlpool from above.
When the lake’s level is low, the concrete spillway structure sticks out of the water. When water levels rise, the spillway turns into a funnel that drains the water.
In 2014, a sinkhole 40 feet wide and 30 feet deep opened up inside the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, swallowing eight classic cars.
A drone from Western Kentucky University captured footage of the Corvette carnage.
