A flying pig knocked out the power to an entire village in China
Well, we’ve officially reached the era of “when pigs fly” as an actual headline we read, not a phrase your dad says when you ask for money.
In southwest China, a farmer in Tongjiang County in Sichuan Province attempted to transport a pig to a slaughterhouse using a drone. The area is mountainous, roads are a hassle, and the farmer apparently decided the solution was to airlift livestock. What followed almost instantly became a local legend.
During the first flight early on January 24, the drone’s rope became entangled in a high-voltage power line. The pig ended up hanging in the air for hours. The village ended up without electricity for about 10 hours. A minor miscalculation later, an entire community got the candlelight experience, whether they wanted it or not.
A worker from the local power supply authority said 12 workers were sent to repair the line, and the repair cost amounted to about 10,000 yuan (about US$1,400). Power returned later that day, after a long stretch of people waiting for the modern world to turn back on.
The farmer blamed poor visibility as it was still dark at the time. The authorities were not impressed. Police launched an investigation and said the farmer was suspected of flying the drone in a no-fly zone along with overloading the drone. An officer said that evidence collection was still ongoing and that if violations were confirmed, the farmer could face administrative punishment and compensation for loss of equipment.
It’s easy to laugh because the headline is objectively absurd. A “flying pig” sounds like a joke. But it also says something about how common drones have become in rural areas, especially in mountainous areas, where transporting animals by vehicle can be slow, expensive and frustrating. People use drones for real work. Sometimes that work involves animals. Sometimes that involves learning in real time that power lines don’t care about your congestion.
The bottom line is, one poor pig had an accidental brush with aviation. The rest of the village got 10 hours of darkness and a story that will last longer than the fallout.
