Yangon, Myanmar.
June 2015
Despite approvals from at least three Ministries and the military, a missing document kept the Customs Department from releasing my Phantom for over 24 hours when I arrived in Myanmar. This bureaucratic nightmare is sorted out now, but I did get a look at some of Mingaladon International Airport's recent customs confiscations.
I saw piles of generic boxes and lots of suitcases, and at the front were two TradeCraft hardcases and an aluminium hardcase containing confiscated Phantoms. On top of the aluminum case was a brand new, still in-the-box Phantom 3 Advanced. All had confiscation tags attached to them and are destined for a warehouse, somewhere. I don't know how many Phantoms were buried in the pile of boxes, only what I saw up front.
My approval was conditional on having a guide present on all flights. The guy assigned to me has been awesome, but I've been grounded by the monsoon season weather here, except for one hairy flight in high winds.
Despite being super photogenic, Myanmar is cracking down on drones brought into the country. Every inbound international bag is x-rayed by Customs and every departure is x-rayed by Security. This goes for all international and domestic flights. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have brought my Phantom in without official approval last November.
Myanmar knows some drones will slip through the system, but they're taking this seriously and have been dialing up awareness about drones among airport customs personnel.
Hope this helps. Your mileage may vary.
June 2015
Despite approvals from at least three Ministries and the military, a missing document kept the Customs Department from releasing my Phantom for over 24 hours when I arrived in Myanmar. This bureaucratic nightmare is sorted out now, but I did get a look at some of Mingaladon International Airport's recent customs confiscations.
I saw piles of generic boxes and lots of suitcases, and at the front were two TradeCraft hardcases and an aluminium hardcase containing confiscated Phantoms. On top of the aluminum case was a brand new, still in-the-box Phantom 3 Advanced. All had confiscation tags attached to them and are destined for a warehouse, somewhere. I don't know how many Phantoms were buried in the pile of boxes, only what I saw up front.
My approval was conditional on having a guide present on all flights. The guy assigned to me has been awesome, but I've been grounded by the monsoon season weather here, except for one hairy flight in high winds.
Despite being super photogenic, Myanmar is cracking down on drones brought into the country. Every inbound international bag is x-rayed by Customs and every departure is x-rayed by Security. This goes for all international and domestic flights. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have brought my Phantom in without official approval last November.
Myanmar knows some drones will slip through the system, but they're taking this seriously and have been dialing up awareness about drones among airport customs personnel.
Hope this helps. Your mileage may vary.