[philipp-de]

This was staged by the german pirate party. They wanted to "take pictures" / draw attention to the surveillance issue.

The incident wasn't discussed in terms of being a threat in german media. Merkel was photographed smiling as the drone crashed down in front of her.

See also: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/merkel-campaign-...

[stephengillie]

They would have been more effective if they had 50-100 individually-controlled quadcopters, and had them hover near specific individuals, looking at facial expressions, phone screens, gestures, etc. Crashing the drone at the guy's feet makes them seem harmless, or even hapless.