Man fined £1,800 in first UK drone conviction

I don't think this was the first ever conviction for a drone pilot in the UK! There was one a while back where the man flew over Alton Towers.

Anyway, good that he was fined, I think that was justified in this case. Hopefully this puts people off similar dangerous stunts.
 
Not just fined,
BANNED from drone ownership and usage.
 
Purdy told Wilson he had put the public at risk by flying the drones over busy, built-up areas. He said: “At each and every one of these places an accident could have occurred simply by a gust of wind or something of that nature taking it out of your control.

What bothers me is how this technology is vilified.

Could have this, might have that......Fact is, noone was ever injured by this guy that has been made known and the likelihood of it is low. How many people now have been seriously injured by falling drones. Millions? Thousands? How about hundreds? Not even.
Again, hysteria and control freaks at work.

I do believe cars and trucks are FAR more deadly to people in built up areas than a drone.
At every single intersection an accident "could" occur.
I'll bet frisbees will injure more people annually.

As with anything and everything, yes there will be accidents. But drone technology is fairly advanced and responsible people can probably fly safely in the vicinity of others.

This technology is too useful to allow paranoid people to make kneejerk reactions to reasonably safe activities. The same type of garbage persisted when automobiles were first invented and when rockets first lifted off of launching pads. Narrow minded people with nothing better to do than try to control others and spew their ignorant hysteria. The same type of people that would have had mankind still living in caves and eating bugs if they had had their way.

This is not the same as flying at high altitude into the airspace reserved for a nations airspace.
Large corporations are working on ways to use drones to deliver packages. Are they supposed to always avoid populated areas as well? I'm certain that as soon as authorities decide they can use this technology they will magically see them as safe to fly overhead....anywhere.

That said, you can't have too many drones flying in the same airspace over people so there should be a FAIR system of obtaining permits to fly over events that would require proof of liability insurance and signed agreement to adhere to specific flight operations that help limit exposure of people below in case of mishap when flying over crowds. Perhaps a parachute system could be required in addition.

Again, this technology is too useful to allow this argument that people and drones don't mix to persist.

YMMV
 
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To be honest, that guy deserved everything he got (and more). He was a member on one of the Phantom 3 Facebook groups and had about a dozen totally illegal flight videos on his YouTube channel - talk about providing the evidence for the prosecution. It seems like a lot of time and effort went into getting a few hundred quid in in fines - at least they kept his drone - that's one less idiot in the sky
 

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