Plaza hotel in Las Vegas plans light show with drones

To celebrate the turn of the New Year, the Plaza plans a unique aerial display involving 150 flying, illuminated drones programmed to turn into a Las Vegas-themed design at a height of up to 400 feet near the downtown hotel’s towers.

The drones will be launched in unison, just after midnight, from a parking lot in the rear of the Plaza, at 1 Main St., in a vertical flight path about 50 to 100 feet from the towers, said Amy Maier, a Plaza spokesperson.

Each drone is 20 inches in diameter, 6 inches high, weighs 2 pounds, has four turning blades and light emitting diodes of 900 lumens, bright enough to be seen for miles, Maier said.

The drone show is separate from the Plaza’s scheduled fireworks display, the only fireworks show downtown for New Year’s. Another New Year’s pyrotechnic show on the Strip is to be set off from the rooftops of eight hotels after midnight.

The only complication for the Plaza’s drone and fireworks shows is the weather as the clock strikes midnight.

If there’s a heavy cloud cover, the pilot of the drone show would be prohibited from launching the drones under regulations by the Federal Aviation Administration, Maier said.

If it rains hard, the drones might also be grounded, since the electronic equipment cannot get wet, and a sustained downpour could make it too damp to shoot off the fireworks.

The Plaza hotel and the fireworks company Pyrotek have been working with the Las Vegas Fire Department, which is in charge of overseeing the fireworks show, Maier said.