bad news again

[teccer]

Dubai International Airport was forced to ground flights for half an hour due to a drone flying in the area, the airport says.

It said airspace around the airport closed just after 0800 local time (0400 GMT) on Wednesday because of "unauthorised drone activity".

Arrivals resumed at 0835, with full operations restarting by 0907.

It is not the first time drones have delayed flights at the airport, one of the world's busiest.

"We remind all [drone] operators that activities are not permitted within 5km (3.11 miles) of any airport or landing area,'' Dubai Airports said on Twitter.

On June 12 a similar incident saw Dubai International Airport close for 69 minutes.

In the wake of the incident, authorities in the United Arab Emirates have announced plans to tighten the rules on buying and using drones.

Drone owners must already register with the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority.

 

[GMack]

Interesting your laws specify a 3.11 mile distance where the USA has 5 miles, which seems too far for some congested cities like LA.

They pull the same interference here in CA with all the wildfires, but they only ground the firefighting aircraft for 30 minutes which seems the battery life of the drones.

 

[eclipse]

Interesting your laws specify a 3.11 mile distance where the USA has 5 miles, which seems too far for some congested cities like LA.

Here in Australia, the regulation says "you should keep at least 5.5 km (3 nm [3.4 mi]) away from airfields, aerodromes and helicopter landing sites."

However, note the "should". As a recreational flyer, it seems it's not actually required to stay 5.5 km away from airports, as long as you don't present a hazard to other aircraft. When I contacted CASA (the Civil Aviation Safety Authority), they confirmed this, noting:

It is vitally important that all operators of aircraft are not presenting a hazard to each other while operating. This is usually achieved by all pilots operating within the framework of standard flight operating procedures. These procedures are dependent on the type of aircraft, the weather conditions, the altitude and the area where the aircraft is being operated. Without knowledge of these standard procedures it is possible that you may be creating a hazard to other aircraft. With this in mind it is often a safer option to operate outside of the 3nm (5.5km) radius of any aerodrome or Helicopter landing site.

Despite what the rules actually say though, the DJI Go app's NFZs keeps drone-flyers from going anywhere near the big airports here in Australia in any case.