Was Providing Video Coverage Of The Event In Italy

A world-class skier was nearly hit  by a UAV that went down on an Italian mountainside during a World Cup competition on Tuesday.

The skier was Marcel Hirscher, who has won four World Cup skiing championships and took the Olympic silver medal at Sochi in 2014.

The incident occurred on live TV. A video (linked below) shows Hirscher starting his run, and the aircraft impacting terrain hard just a few feet behind him as he skis down the slope.

Hirscher was not hit by the aircraft or any debris. Still, he told the Associated Press "This is horrible. This can never happen again. This can be serious injury."

The BBC reports that the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced after the incident that it would be banning UAVs from its World Cup races for safety reasons.

The aircraft was owned by the sports marketing agency Infront, which said in a statement that events leading up to the accident "are currently being examined."

Hirscher continues skiing after the incident, and finished the event in 2nd place, 1.25 seconds behind Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen.

(Image from video posted to YouTube)

FMI: https://youtu.be/TJu4kmcy8gQ