NUS Student Fined S$5,000 For Flying Drone Over NTU Without Permit
In June 2021, 25-year-old Xu Zi Zhou flew his drone over National Technological University (NTU) to take photos of his girlfriend and her friend.
Source: Digital Camera World
By doing so, he was found to have flouted drone regulations, reported Channel NewsAsia (CNA).
On Monday (10 Oct), the National University of Singapore (NUS) student was fined S$5,000.
Student flies drone in NTU’s Yunnan Garden
Xu is a Chinese national student at NUS who’s here on a student pass. He first purchased his drone, a DJI Mavic Air 2, from Shopee on 28 May 2021.
Following that, he did a few flight tests with the 568.5g drone around the NUS campus.
Xu then met up with his girlfriend and one of her friends on 1 Jun 2021.
They went to NTU’s Yunnan Garden, where Xu took photos and videos of them.
Source: U-Insight
Around 4.30pm, the drone was detected by the Civil Authority of Singapore (CAAS).
According to CNA, it flew at a maximum altitude of 158m (518.37 feet) above mean sea level, within 5km of Tengah aerodrome.
CAAS officers were then dispatched to Yunnan Garden. Seeing Xu operating the drone, they asked him to land it.
The drone’s flight logs showed that Xu flew it five times that day with a total flight time of 18 minutes.
Activity permit required to fly drone
CAAS regulations state that if an unmanned aircraft (UA) below 25kg, such as a drone, is being flown for recreational purposes, a Class 2 Activity Permit is needed under certain conditions.
These conditions include the following:
- being flown at an altitude exceeding 60.96m (200 feet)
- within any restricted/danger/protected area
- within 5km of a civil aerodrome or military airbase
CNA reported that if Xu had applied for the permit, he would have been allowed to operate the drone in compliance with safe operating conditions.
Fined S$5,000 in court
On Monday (10 Oct), Xu pleaded guilty to one count of operating an unmanned aircraft without a valid activity permit within 5km of Tengah aerodrome.
Another two charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
For flouting drone regulations, he was fined S$5,000 by the court.
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Featured image adapted from Digital Camera World and U-Insight.
