How Sending up a Drone Landed This Pilot a $1,900 Fine
News | By Stephan Jukic | September 1, 2023
The days of consumer drones being such novelties that anyone could fly them nearly anywhere are mostly gone, crushed under selective red tape.
A UK drone pilot learned this the hard way last Friday when he was fined £1,500 or $1,900 for illegally navigating his DJI Mavic 2 over a music festival that was close to an airport.
Ironically, police for the county of Derbyshire in East Midlands later posted his own video online as a visually documented guide to others about the potential for easy aerial lawbreaking.
The pilot, Daniel Cesare, later pleaded guilty to seven different counts for his sins.
These included flying a UAV in restricted airspace (the nearby airport) without official permission, flying above maximum operational height for the UAV, failing to keep his unmanned craft in sight and not having a registration number visibly displayed.
The total fines assessed for these offenses were levied on Cesare when he was sentenced this past Friday, August 25th and ordered to pay $1,281 (£1,000) in fines plus a further $108 (£85) in “costs” plus a “victim surcharge” of $512 (£403).
Governments do love their legal surcharges.
In Cesare’s case, the sentencing on the above counts was applied because he flew his drone above 400 feet and out to a distance great enough that he could no longer see the UAV.
He did all of this for the sake of aerially filming the Download Festival, a heavy metal music event that featured bands like Metallica and Slipknot.
Based on reporting from the site DroneDJ, Cesare tried to convince the court that he wasn’t guilty by virtue of legal ignorance:
“I wasn’t aware of the restrictions and laws. I should have researched more. It was a new hobby to me,” according to the hapless drone flier during his court appearance.
Predictably, the presiding magistrate shot back that “ignorance is no defense whatsoever”
One regional police constable helped underscore the terrifying severity of Cesare’s crimes by pointing out that he flew his little machine slightly into the local East Midland Airport’s restricted space twice, once while a plane was landing no less.
The constable further elaborated on the frightful danger of the whole situation by adding that Cesare “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.”
Horrifying indeed. One supposes the county isn’t exactly a major crime hotspot with the agitation this little drone generated with some local coppers.
To be fair, Cesare’s capture and resulting legal misfortunes do stem from previous incidents during this same festival: In 2022, the local airspace had to be shut down four times due to multiple drones buzzing above the festival grounds.
For the 2023 Download Festival, this prompted the Derbyshire police to literally form a “counter-drone” squad of officers tasked specifically with detecting who was flying which illegal drones in the area.
As soon as the police noticed Cesare’s drone, they managed to track it back to him, where upon arriving they seized both the UAV and his phone, which was used in court as evidence of previous illegal flights.
In a curiously punitive finishing slap against the UAV hobbyist, the court also ordered that both drone and phone be confiscated and destroyed. Perhaps they thought the devices were haunted by legal ignorance.
Maybe the county government should consider moving next year’s music festival to somewhere that’s not right next to a regional airport.
For all you drone photography fans out there, regardless of where you happen to live, let the above be a warning:
Know your own local/national drone laws and the geography in which you fly your UAVs. Don’t let yourself become your local police department’s excitement of the week.
At the very least, have a clean getaway planned in advance for both you and your drone.
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Stephan Jukic is a technology and photography journalist and experimental photographer who spends his time living in both Canada and Mexico. He loves cross-cultural street photo exploration and creating fine art photo compositions.
