New rules for recreational drones in effect
Posted Mar 16, 2017 12:56:24 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Transport Minister Marc Garneau made an announcement at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport on Thursday, to crack down on the incidents involving drones.
“I think we’ve known for some time that some tightening was going to happen,” says Chris Wood, General Manager of Waterloo Regional Airport.
The new rules focus on distancing drones from controlled air spaces, as well as forest fires and first-responder emergency sites.
Specifically, drones cannot fly higher than 90 metres; fly within 75 metres of buildings, vehicles or people, and have to stay nine kilometres away from anywhere aircraft land or take off.
These rules have been set with the hopes that disasters and accidents involving drones and aircraft eventually end.
“Unfortunately there have been a couple of incidents over the past little while, we’ve had some pilot sightings and air traffic control sightings of drones in the area,” says Wood. “Over the Christmas, operations staff found a drone that inadvertently gotten away from a gentleman in the Doon area, and landed at the airport.”
Any operators who fail to comply to the new restrictions and rules can face fines of up to $3,000.
The department is also considering enforcing a minimum age requirement for operation, set at 14 years old.
