In Memoriam: Sebastián Uribe Sanabria

On Monday, October 13, 2025, the uncrewed aviation industry lost one of its early pioneers. Sebastian Uribe Sanabria (1987-2025) lost his life while performing a photogrammetric job on a rail line connecting the geographical center of Colombia with its Atlantic coastline.

For the past three years at Commercial UAV News, we have covered the activities of Sebastian’s company Xenital, which under his leadership, took part in ambitious projects involving research and development using small drones.

First, it was helping the Colombian Department of Transportation with the regular inspections and eventual mapping of complex engineering projects in the difficult mountainous geography of that country. Then came the use of drones to expedite inventory management in huge warehouses using a technique known as simultaneous localization and mapping, or SLAM, and also taking advantage of the images created during the process to control rodents and other pests.

In short, Sebastián was constantly looking for new applications. He was a force of nature, his tireless energy was contagious, and he used that passion to attract investors and clients alike. He was convinced that drones had a future in applications that we could not see today, and that explained why he spent so much time in UAV R&D. He was an entrepreneur and CEO, and as such, he had an obligation to create revenue streams in order to keep his company alive.

The railroad project during which he tragically died is called “La Dorada - Chiriguaná railway corridor” and is a 323-mile-long restoration of existing lines conceived and configured as an efficient alternative for the transport of cargo between the center of Colombia and the Caribbean ports.

The project required the establishment of 960 land surveying monuments with precise coordinates to serve as ground control points (GCP) for the photogrammetry job that would follow using small drones and lidar.

The day of the accident, Sebastián was either piloting or acting as Pilot in Command (PIC) but not operating the controls of the mapping drone, when an unexpected incident occurred outside of the crew's control. In the course of the work, he suffered a fatal accident. The authorities are still investigating the exact details, but in general terms, he passed away doing what he loved.

Sebastián understood that to create something new, he had to have a sustainable foundation. This is why he used drones in projects that were not necessarily leading edge, but helped Xenital maintain a steady revenue stream that would allow a group of young people to stay involved in uncrewed aviation.

The big difference between traditional crewed aviation, in which a handful of countries hold the overwhelming majority of the technology and the manufacturing capacity, and the new uncrewed aviation is that everyone around the planet has the same opportunity to innovate and revolutionize. This is a different world in which anyone has access to components and information almost instantly, and therefore, the answer to the many questions about the deployment of drones and air taxis can come from anywhere in the world.

Colombia is such a place, and Sebastián was one of the stars of that innovative firmament in which hundreds, if not thousands, of young (and not so young) people are embarked on the development of this new way of doing things with aviation.

Perhaps that is why Sebastián’s passing hit me so hard. We lost one of our early pioneers. The industry worldwide lost one of the most brilliant minds of his generation. His insatiable thirst for knowledge, combined with his understanding of the business needs of any commercial endeavor, made him unique. He was in love with technology, but only insofar as to satisfy a need, to help people, and to add wealth and knowledge to his country and his fellow citizens.

I will miss our conversations, his cheerful irreverence, and his deep insight into our industry. Every time I spoke to him, I learned something, and I saw my industry with a new light, from a different angle.

Goodbye Sebastián. I hope you moved on to a better place and better things.