An amateur drone pilot has been denounced by the Guardia Civil for flying over the controlled airspace of the Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández airport.
The matter is considered a “serious” behaviour and the economic amount of the sanction can exceed 200,000 euro.
The State Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) will be the competent authority to issue the corresponding sanction for the incident, which occurred in May and came to light this week, after a report of the drone was issued by a commercial pilot.
The Guardia Civil’s specialist PEGASO team launched a search and location device for both the aircraft and its pilot.
Thanks to a computer tracking and monitoring system that allows the drones that fly over a certain area to be monitored and controlled in real time, they were able to find the drone and the person who was handling it.
Once identified, it was found that he did not meet the requirements to fly a UAS (Uncontrolled Aircraft Systems), “since he did not have the corresponding qualifications and valid insurance to carry out said activity, nor was he registered as an operator nor did he meet the heights of flight”, according to a statement from the Guardia Civil.
For all these reasons, “he was informed of the seriousness of his action when operating in controlled airspace and the facts have been reported to AESA for a series of infractions of Law 21/2003 on Air Safety“. According to the same sources, the various economic violations could reach up to 225,000 euro for having flown the drone less than eight kilometres from the airport or for allegedly interfering with the airspace.
The Guardia Civil has highlighted that this action was received positively by all levels of AENA because, “in addition to avoiding a possible catastrophe, the closure of the airspace was also avoided, with the consequent damage that it would have entailed for the workers of the airport and of the passengers themselves.
