Drones have become extremely popular in recent years and they have a wide range of uses. Amateur operators get enjoyment out of simply flying them much like the way airplane enthusiasts spend hours piloting their remote controlled airplanes. Beyond that, drones have several practical uses such as surveying land, reaching isolated areas in disaster zones, and even delivering packages to your door. Movie studios no longer need to use expensive equipment like long booms and helicopters to shoot overhead scenes and farmers can use them to monitor their herds on huge tracts of land. Of course, this technology is being used by the military for everything ranging from surveillance to dropping bombs.

Drones have also caused a few problems. People that fly them near airports or flight paths can endanger aircraft. Several drones have fallen from the sky into busy streets causing injuries and damaging vehicles. One of the biggest problems centers on personal privacy. It’s so easy to mount a camera and get a look through somebody’s window. As it stands, the United States allows anyone to own and operate a drone provided the craft weighs less than 55 pounds.

There have been some pretty amazing things captured by drones that have cameras mounted to them. Just do a quick Google search of the topic and you will find thousands of interesting clips that will keep you entertained for hours. Let’s take a look at the 15 most chilling images captured from drones around the world.

15. Tanning on a Rooftop

This footage was taken by an amateur drone operator and it does a good job of illustrating how easy it is to invade a person’s privacy and why certain people shouldn’t be allowed to fly them. In the clip, a young woman is seen soaking up some rays on the roof of a tall building when along comes a drone to check her out. She notices the hovering craft, covers herself up, and then decides to give chase with what appears to be a push broom. We then see the drone returning unharmed to its operator. The young lady was obviously quite upset when she realized what was happening. We have often heard that Big Brother is watching us but it seems that any bozo with a drone and a camera can watch you too.

14. Angry Farmer

There are certainly a lot of good uses for drones. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of controversy around this easily accessible technology and this is especially true when it comes to privacy. It’s understandable that not too many people want to see a camera-carrying drone hovering outside their bedroom window. The guy in this picture definitely didn’t appreciate having a drone filming footage of his estate outside of London, England. After spotting the drone, the unidentified man angrily grabbed his double-barreled shotgun, threw his hat on the ground, took aim, and unloaded on the flying intruder. We should give the guy his due props for having such an accurate shot. With its camera still working, the drone quickly plummeted to the ground where it crash-landed in some bushes.

13. Car Bomb

This chilling photograph was taken by a drone that was hovering over a compound somewhere in Libya. The blast occurred when an explosive-laden car sped toward the compound, maneuvered around a building, and then raced toward a parking area in which several bystanders were milling about. When they noticed the vehicle quickly approaching, the bystanders desperately tried to scramble to safety. A few people managed to escape the carnage but an unknown number of them were blown to smithereens. Islamic State fighters are increasingly using drones to better coordinate their attacks as well as using the technology to spy on their enemies. This footage was apparently uploaded by ISIS and was accompanied by footage of an anonymous terrorist boasting about the technology that they have at their disposal. The world gets scarier by the minute.

12. Fatal Accident

A drone was quick to get to the scene following an eight-vehicle pileup on a Los Angeles freeway in April 2017. A northbound semi-trailer allegedly crossed the center divider and crashed head on into several southbound vehicles including another semi-trailer that was transporting a tanker of milk. The collisions caused a large explosion which sent thick, black smoke billowing into the air. The smoke could be seen for miles. 75 fire fighters from different departments responded and were able to extinguish the blaze. Despite the large scale of carnage, only one person died although 10 others were sent to hospital with minor injuries. The crash caused the highway to be closed for several hours with the northbound lanes being shut down for nearly 8 hours as investigators and cleanup crews did their thing.

11. Lunch Time

It’s quite amazing how killer whales have the ability to work together so efficiently. Whether they are feeding on a massive school of sardines or trying to separate a blue whale calf from its mother, killer whales execute their tasks with military precision. This drone footage captured a pod of hungry orcas as they overpowered a minke whale. Each one of these apex predators have an important assignment just as each player on a football team has a specific task. It appears that this fight is nearly over as the prey has been overpowered by the attacking horde. Soon, the killer whales can grab their salt, pepper, and hot sauce and enjoy their bountiful feast.

10. Scary Encounter

Isabelle Fabre documents her travels and gives her social media followers regular updates of her adventures. She was kite surfing off the coast of Western Australia when a great white shark began to circle her. In the above image, which was captured by a drone, a large dark shadow can be clearly seen just a few feet away from her. She initially thought that the dark mass was just her surfboard’s shadow but she soon realized that it was something far more dangerous. She tried to veer away from it but the wind was too light. Her friends were filming and when they saw the shark they frantically tried to get her attention from shore. It ended well for Isabella when she managed to scramble to dry land. This close call didn’t scare her as she continues to kite surf.

9. Heads Up

Joel Nankivell was flying his drone in Injidup Bay in Western Australia when he noticed a paddleboarder with his feet in the water near a school of salmon. He then caught sight of a shark that was dangerously close to the oblivious paddleboarder. Seeing that the unidentified paddler appeared to be heading straight for the shark, Nankivell began to fly his drone near the man in an attempt to get his attention and warn him of the danger. The man didn’t get the hint and ended up catching a wave which launched him right into the shark’s immediate vicinity. Luckily, the shark moved out of the way and wandered off leaving the unsuspecting paddleboarder to carry on his merry way. He never knew how close he came to being a shark’s lunch.

8. Tornado Damage

A drone took to the air and got this chilling footage of the damage that was caused when a series of tornadoes touched down and caused mass devastation in Mayflower, Arkansas in 2014. The rubble in the middle of the picture is actually the remains of a building that was blown away and deposited beside Interstate 40. Rescue crews can be seen sifting through the mess in search of survivors. Debris littered the highway as did several overturned cars that were violently tossed by the incredibly high winds. It is believed that the savage tornadoes were responsible for at least 16 deaths across the state. The storm destroyed entire neighborhoods leaving nothing more than the foundations. Escaping the destruction is no easy task with the roadways blocked and covered with downed power lines.

7. Close Call

Photographer Sean Scott was using his drone to capture footage of bronze whaler sharks as they fed on a massive bait ball off the coast of Red Bluff Beach in Western Australia. He then noticed a group of young children who were floating around on body boards close to the feeding frenzy. This image clearly shows some of the kids lazily floating as one of the many feeding sharks comes in for a closer look. Judging by the lack of panic, the school kids weren’t aware of the danger that lurked right underneath them. Fortunately, the sharks that circled below didn’t seem interested in the sitting ducks and returned to the massive school of fish that they were originally dining on. We should be impressed by the way the kids and the sharks were coexisting side by side.

6. Auschwitz

Just saying the word “Auschwitz” stirs up images of mass starvation, unimaginable suffering, and brutal death. This killing factory was shut down over 70 years ago but the horrific memories that remain in those that survived will never fade away. The thousands of people that visit this site each year are also deeply impacted by the scale of the brutality. Each one of these buildings held up to 1,000 prisoners at a time. Between the day that the camp was opened in 1940 and the day it was liberated in 1945 it is estimated that over a million people died here. This photo was taken by a drone as it flew over the camp that covers about 40 square kilometers. The footage was aired on a news feature ahead of the 70^th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation.

5. Hurricane Harvey

Hurricane Harvey recently ripped a path of destruction through Barbados, Guyana, Belize, and the United States. It was the first Category 3 or higher hurricane to make landfall since 2005 and it caused extensive damage with its 150 mph winds. The latest footage from those areas that have been overwhelmed by flooding is heartbreaking. One of the hardest hit areas is Houston which has turned into a flood zone. A drone shot this image as it hovered over an affected area in Port Aransas. This neighborhood was far from the worst damaged but it is clear that each homeowner has been deeply affected. This violent storm is being blamed for at least 37 deaths in the United States and the economic losses are in the tens of billions of dollars. It will take several years to recover.

4. Fire Damage

Tens of thousands of people living in the Canadian province of British Columbia have had their lives tragically altered after raging wildfires consumed a significant portion of the province’s interior. Those that were forced to leave their homes would have been devastated when they returned to find their residences and possessions completely destroyed. This drone footage, which shows the burnt remains of what used to be a tree-lined neighborhood, clearly shows the destructive power of Mother Nature. The hovering craft caught footage of burnt out vehicles, charred lawns, and a landscape in which there is very little left to burn. Several thousand people remain evacuated and thousands more are on evacuation alert as the fires continue to rage out of control. The current hot and dry conditions in the region are certainly not helping matters.

3. Tragic Crash

The aftermath of a terrible crash involving two semi-trailers and a car was captured by a drone near Mount Isa in Queensland, Australia in May 2017. An eastbound car collided with a westbound gravel truck that was towing three carriages. A cattle truck, which was also toting three carriages, had to take evasive action to avoid the collision but wound up bursting into flames when it crashed in the grass several feet away from the highway. Fire fighters were able to extinguish the fire but several heads of cattle had to be put down. Incredibly, there were no human fatalities although the driver of the gravel truck was taken to hospital with possible spinal injuries. It was one of the most horrific scenes that many of the responding officers had ever witnessed.

2. Snacking on a Shark

There aren’t too many things that sharks need to worry about. They are one of the scariest predators in the ocean and there have been countless cases of humans being killed or seriously injured when they crossed paths with one. There is one thing that even the biggest great white sharks want to avoid and that is a killer whale. This drone footage was taken in 2016 and it demonstrates how one-sided a battle between a shark and an orca is. A pod of killer whales was passing through a stretch of ocean off the coast of California when a sevengill shark happened to pass by. One of the orcas grabbed the shark much in the same way that a dog grabs a bone. The shark could only squirm for a few moments before its lifeless body was passed on to two orca calves that chowed down on the carcass.

1. Fresh Pork

We’ve seen sharks and killer whales show how they have earned their reputations as vicious killers but there is another creature that is almost as intimidating. The saltwater crocodile is the largest living reptile on the planet and they have been known to even prey on sharks. These things can grow to over 20 feet in length and weigh more than 2,500 pounds. They definitely think nothing of going after humans as multiple occurrences are reported every year. A drone captured this photo off the coast of Baia, Papua New Guinea, in which a saltwater croc is bringing home the bacon. There appears to be a leash attached to the pig which would indicate that it was possibly a pet. This particular crocodile had a history of creeping into the village and snatching pets.