A 36-year-old drone pilot has been fined nearly £1,500 ($1,900) by a UK court. The man was found to have been flying his DJI Mavic 2 drone recklessly near an airport while trying to film a rock music festival.
Almost 130,000 people descended on England’s Donington Park for the 20th-anniversary edition of Download Festival in June this year. They knew they would celebrate rock music over four days with headlining acts from Bring Me The Horizon, Slipknot, and Metallica. What they did not know was that Daniel Cesare would put them at risk by flying a drone above them, while himself being a good 1,670 meters away from the festival site. Or that he would do this two days in a row!
“I wasn’t aware of the restrictions and laws. I should have researched more. It was a new hobby to me,” Cesare told the court last weekend.
But it didn’t help his case that Donington Park is located next to an airport and falls within its flight restriction zone. On one occasion, Cesare was flying in the restricted airspace while an airplane was in the process of landing. On both occasions, the drone was being flown at 1,640 feet, more than four times the legal height limit of 400 feet.
Footage from the drone also shows both day and night-time shots of the festival, with a plane seen landing in the video.
Last weekend, Cesare pleaded guilty to seven charges in the court, including:
- Two charges of flying an unmanned aircraft in a flight restriction zone without permission
- Two charges of failing to comply with the maximum operation height
- Two charges of failing to keep an unmanned flight in sight
- Contravening a requirement to display a registration number
He was fined £1,008 and ordered to pay an additional £85 in costs and £403 in victim surcharge. The court also ordered his drone and mobile phone to be destroyed.
Also read: New drone floodlight can illuminate two tennis courts at once
In a statement released after the August 25 sentencing, Stephen Booth, an officer with the territorial police force said, “Cesare showed, on two occasions, a complete disregard for the rules around flying a drone. Twice he took his aircraft into the restricted airspace of East Midlands Airport, on the first occasion as a plane was in the process of landing.
“He also showed disregard for the tens of thousands of people attending the Download Festival and their safety, flying the drone out of his line of sight ran the risk of him losing control of that aircraft which could’ve had catastrophic consequences.
“Laws surround the flying of a drone for a reason, they are to keep the pilot and those around the flight path as safe as possible. This sentence proves the courts take those who ignore the law seriously, as do we, and we will continue to bring those who flout the rules to justice.”
Read more: Insta360 is having a big sale for Labor Day 2023
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments