Man Who Flew His Drone Dangerously At Punggol Fined Heavily

By
Shawn Ambrose
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Some are born with common sense, some learn common sense, and others have common sense thrust upon them by the government.

You and I know not to smuggle contraband cigarettes into the country, but some people do it anyway.

You and I know that we shouldn’t buy face masks in bulk and sell them at higher prices, but some people do it anyway.

What I’m trying to say, dear reader, as eloquently as I possibly can, is that people can be dumb sometimes.

Man Who Flew His Drone Near Paya Lebar Airspace Fined Heavily

A 41-year-old man was fined $9,000 on Thursday (5 Mar) for flying his drone within 5km of Paya Lebar Air Base without a permit.

It all started with a friendly gathering.

The man, Tay Miow Seng had a get together with his friend Ed Chen Junyuan and their wives on 26 June 2019.

And as many men do in gatherings, Tay and Ed brought their drones with them to-

Image: Giphy

I’m sure their wives must have had the time of their lives just watching their husbands play with drones.

But anyways.

Tay flew Chen’s newly-purchased drone in addition to flying his own drone.

Unfortunately, neither of them had the required Class 2 activity permit.

Penalties

Before I go on, I’d advise you to put your wallets away, because they might start crying when they read this.

Now, both Tay and Chen faced one charge of operating their drones within 5km of the Paya Lebar Airbase without a permit, but Tay received a much larger fine because he had flown his drone much higher.

Chen, 37, was fined $2,000 on 4 Nov 2019. He had flown his drone no higher than 6 metres, or approximately 2 floors high.

Tay, however, went a little crazy with it and flew his device at up to 431 metres, which is six times the allowed limit of 64 metres.

That’s a pretty significant difference.

Due to this, Tay faced a second charge for operating the drone in a manner likely to endanger the safety of an aircraft.

A separate charge of flying his drone without a permit within Coney Island on 26 March 2019 was also taken into consideration because some crimes are only fun if you do it more than once.

In total, Tay received a fine of $9,000, comprised of a $3,500 fine for the first charge and a $5,500 fine for the second.

Even as a first-time offender, Tay could have been fined up to S$20,000 for each of his two charges.

Repeat offenders could be jailed for up to 15 months and fined up to S$40,000.

But what’s so bad about drones?

You may be wondering what the big deal is.

So what if I fly my drone high up in the glorious blue sky? I’m not hurting anyone.

Well, just over a week before Tay flew his drone, several unauthorised drones were spotted in the vicinity of Changi Airport between 11pm on June 18 and 9am on June 19.

This caused 37 scheduled flights to be delayed, and one flight was diverted to land at Kuala Lumpur airport instead.

According to Mothership, a similar incident occurred on 24 June, delaying 18 departure and arrival flights and diverting seven others.

So, the next time you want to fly your drone, don’t. I might just miss my flight to Bangkok.

So where can I fly my drone?

This is a common question for drone owners because it wouldn’t make sense for those without drones to ask it.

There are several locations in Singapore where you can freely fly your drone to your heart’s content:

  • Old Holland Road Field
  • Republic Avenue Field
  • Marina Mall Road Field
  • Marina Gardens Drive Field
  • Kallang Road Field
  • Tanjung Rhu View Field
  • Marina East Drive Field
  • Marina Barrage Field

And if you don’t feel like getting fined $9000 anytime soon, you should have a look at flywhere.sg‘s map where all the no-fly zones are listed.

Image: flywhere.sg

Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:

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Shawn Ambrose
Email: [email protected]