A July Fourth drone show in SeaTac, Washington, was hampered when 55 of 200 drones involved lost their GPS signals and fell into the city’s Angle Lake, which the drones were flying over.

Therefore, the drone show had to end early. SeaTac officials said in a release that no injuries occurred, and holiday fireworks were successfully set off afterward.

The drone show was the first ever put on by the city, operated by vendor Great Lakes Drone Company.

Great Lakes Drone Company owner and CEO Matthew Quinn said in a statement that “the drone light show performance experienced a sudden loss of GPS signal on several drones, causing them to go into a failsafe landing mode.”

At that point, the drone pilot moved to stop the show and return the drones to where they took off. However, Mr. Quinn explained, more drones kept losing their GPS signals and, as such, could not return to position, causing them to drop into the lake.

“At this time, the cause is unknown and under investigation by the flight team and authorities, as no internal system or drone causes have been found in the flight logs. More information will be released when we know more,” Mr. Quinn said.

The drone show cost SeaTac about $40,000, according to Seattle CBS affiliate KIRO-TV.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.