Advice to drone owners after near miss with Aircraft

Police are asking drone owners to please be aware of where they are flying following a near miss between an unlicensed drone and aircraft earlier this week.

It was reported on Tuesday (27 April) that a pilot was flying his aircraft over the Brockworth area at around 7.30pm the night before when he was nearly hit by a drone which was not licensed according to the London Air Traffic Control.

This took place approximately two miles south of Staverton Airport whilst the aircraft was flying at 2400ft and could have caused a serious collision.

Updated legislation around the use of drones came into effect in March 2019 making it an offence to fly a drone without the permission of air traffic control and to fly a drone within an aerodrome traffic zone, committing these offences can result in an arrest and possible prosecution.

It’s not known if the drone pilot was aware of what happened and more information on where you can fly drones can be found on the Civil Aviation Authority website: https://register-drones.caa.co.uk/drone-code/where-you-can-fly

Officers are asking anyone who has information on the individual flying the drone to please get in contact.

Information can be submitted by completing the following online form and referencing incident 98 of 27 April: https://www.gloucestershire.police.uk/tua/tell-us-about/cor/tell-us-about-existing-case-report/