On the way back from Asda this afternoon, about 100m from my house, I encountered a road block with a load of undercover police in the road. They had apprehended 3 teenagers in a white hatchback, one of them was bleeding. I noticed their driver’s window was smashed, probably by the police trying to get them out. Not sure what the teenagers had done, stolen car or drugs perhaps.
I got back home a few minutes later, launched the Mini 3 Pro and went for a look. The teenagers had their hands in zip ties. One to the left on the grass, one on the curb and the other in the car park to the right.
I can’t find it at the moment, but I am pretty sure there has been a discussion on here about some specific legislation covering drone flying near to an emergency services response.
I don’t know if this type of incident is covered, or if it’s only things like fires, ambulance responses etc.
To be clear, I’m in no way criticising what you have done here, but just trying to understand what the “rules” are
Never heard of this. If anything does exist (which I doubt), it would be very difficult to enforce. Reporters do it all the time. And it is no different to Joe Public walking past with a camera phone
CAP 722 5.2.2.3
Ensure that the UA is not flown close to or inside any areas where an emergency
response effort is ongoing, unless they have permission to do so from the
responsible emergency response personnel.
Note:
The term ‘emergency response effort’ covers any activities by police, fire, ambulance,
coastguard or other similar services where action is ongoing in order to preserve life,
protect the public or respond to a crime in progress. This includes activities such as road
traffic collisions, fires, rescue operations and firearms incidents, although this list is not
exhaustive.
Thanks @Crackerjack …. I remember now what my concern/confusion was.
I could be flying half a mile from an emergency incident (and be totally unaware it’s going on), and could still fall foul of this regulation.
The lose terminology of “close” isn’t helpful
They didn’t come looking for you when they saw the drone so can’t have judged it an issue at the time. If they’d seen it and took more than a passing glance, I’d have drawn back and landed.
There was a gas explosion near us some time ago, young boy killed. All emergency service response and a dickhead with a drone (as far as I’m concerned) buzzing over. I’m not aware the police did anything about it. Was also inside the nuclear restricted area for which another local has been dealt with by the police.
Clink camera action, could be a be series in the making there Chris
There was a discussion on a podcast regarding flying close to emergency services @BudgieUK on UAVhub and they called it General Offense 8, it basically refers to what @Crackerjack posted on the CAP 722.
Cheers Jim. Seems like others are asking the same question … “define close”.
What does the CAA view as an emergency, would routine parts of a police investigation like scene of crime collection hours after an emergency still qualify?
Does the CAA have a view on what distance should be consider “close to” a scene?
Yours faithfully,
I Hudson
They suggest it is to ensure air ambulances can land if needed. But in this case, it was an active road onto an estate. And they were already allowing traffic to pass 1m from the scene. So I would struggle to accept any argument that a lone sub-250g drone 50’ above them would pose any risk.
And if the CAA really wanted this rule enforced, they must offer proper, crystal clear guidance. I.e. a fixed distance that can be enforced, e.g. 10m, 50m, etc. And not just an ambiguous term such as ‘close’
Thanks @Kings …. I knew I had been in a discussion before about this, but could not find it, but “Offence 8” allowed me to track it down.
As has been said several times now …. the rules are very vague in what’s not allowed. As always with these things, common sense seems to be a valuable asset!
