A teacher in New York has been arrested for crashing a drone into empty seats during a tennis match at the US open.

Daniel Verley, aged 26, has been charged with reckless endangerment and operating the drone outside of a prescribed area within a public park.

Nobody was injured during the crash, however the tennis match was briefly interrupted on Thursday evening as police and fire emergency teams investigated.

One of the players in action at the time, Flavia Pennetta, described fearing the worst at hearing the drone.  “With everything going on in the world… I thought, ‘OK, it’s over.’ That’s how things happen. If there had been spectators, it would have hit them and done a lot of damage.”

Thankfully, the 10,000 seat stadium was only partially filled at the time of the crash, compared to several hours earlier when the stadium was full.