Man fined $9,000 for unlawfully flying drone in Punggol
A man was fined $9,000 yesterday for unlawfully flying a drone.
The New Paper understands this is the highest fine imposed for such offences on an individual so far.
Tay Miow Seng, 41, pleaded guilty last December to two charges under the Air Navigation Order.
Another charge of unlawfully flying the drone at Coney Island in March last year was taken into consideration during sentencing.
In June last year, Tay's friend, Ed Chen Junyuan, 37, bought a drone online and asked Tay to teach him how to operate it.
They decided to meet near Chen's home in Punggol, where both men flew their drones.
Tay flew his drone twice, and flight logs revealed he had flown it at a maximum height of 5m for the first flight and then at a maximum height of 431m for about 11 minutes for the second flight.
Both Tay and Chen continued operating their drones until the batteries were drained and their gadgets were grounded.
NO-FLY ZONE
Shortly later, an off-duty officer with the Republic of Singapore Air Force alerted to the incident arrived at the scene and told them it was a "no-fly zone".
"Tay admitted to the witness he was aware the area was a 'no-fly-zone', but that it had slipped his mind as he was excited to teach Chen how to operate his drone," said Deputy Public Prosecutor Dwayne Lum.
Further investigations revealed the application that Tay had used to fly his drone showed the area was an "authorisation zone", and reminded users that authorisation would be needed to operate drones there.
Chen was fined $2,000 last year.
In a statement yesterday, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore said it took a serious view of errant operators of unmanned aircraft and would not hesitate to take action against those who contravene regulations.
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