NTU Housing Manager Gets $7,500 Fine For Flying Drone Without A License
With the advent of drones, comes many picturesque videos taken from bird’s eye views. Its unrestricted movements mean you can often find yourself discovering a new perspective of a seemingly mundane sight.
However, an NTU housing manager decided to do his work by flying a drone without a license to one of the halls’ rooftops.
He was looking to see if the rooftop was properly cleaned by the cleaning staff by snapping pictures with the drone.
Later, he flew the drone at around 155m altitude, catching the attention of the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF).
Clever as it may seem, the authorities duly fined him $7,500 for flying an unregistered drone without a permit.
NTU housing manager operates drone to take pictures of rooftop cleanliness
On 8 Nov, The Straits Times (ST), reported that the NTU housing manager had wanted to check if the rooftop at a hall on campus was properly cleaned and flew his drone to snap pictures of it.
ST reports that the housing manager operated the drone to snap pictures of the rooftop of Hall 4 in NTU.
After doing so, he then moved to another location in the vicinity of Carpark F in NTU to fly the drone for his own recreational purposes.
During this time, the drone reached an altitude of around 155m above NTU’s Sports and Recreation Hall.
The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) detected the offence and subsequently contacted the man to land the drone.
Upon contact, he stopped flying the drone.
NTU housing manager has since procured the correct licences
Other considerations in the sentence include flying the drone close to Tengah Airbase, as well as in NTU, which has considerable foot traffic.
In light of these charges, the housing manager has since obtained the relevant licences to operate the drone, reports ST.
NTU told ST that he is still an employee there.
Comply with drone regulations
Those who own drones, do note the various permits required by law to operate them in Singapore to avoid landing in trouble.
You can check out the various laws surrounding drones from this website.
Nevertheless, we are glad to learn that the man has learned his lesson and procured the relevant permits to operate his drones.
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Featured image adapted from Darrel Und on Pexels & Wikicommons.Â
