Well, we’ve officially made it to the era of “when pigs fly” as an actual headline we’re reading, not a phrase your dad says when you ask for money.
In southwest China, a farmer in Tongjiang County, Sichuan Province, tried 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 aerial livestock delivery. What followed turned into a local legend almost immediately.
During the first flight early on Jan. 24, the drone’s rope became tangled in a high-voltage power line. The pig ended up suspended in midair for hours. The village ended up without electricity for roughly 10 hours. One 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 repair costs came to about 10,000 yuan (roughly $1,400). Power returned later that day, after a long stretch of people waiting for the modern world to switch back on.
The farmer blamed poor visibility, since it was still dark at the time. Authorities were not impressed. Police opened 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 evidence collection was still underway and that, if violations are confirmed, the farmer could face administrative punishment and compensation for equipment losses.
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 regions where hauling animals by vehicle can be slow, expensive, and frustrating. People are using drones for real work. Sometimes that work involves animals. Sometimes it involves learning, in real time, that power lines do not care about your hustle.
The bottom line is, one poor pig got an accidental brush with aviation. The rest of the village got 10 hours of darkness and a story that will last way longer than the outage.
