Avinor report 40 illegal drone flights last year

Drone:Pixabay

Last year, Avinor reported 40 individual episodes where drones came too close to Norwegian airports.

According to Avinor, many of the illegal flights are due to a lack of knowledge about the regulations.

Now Avinor is asking the police to prioritize such incidents, which led to closed airports several times last year. In one case, the drone was only a hundred yards away from a plane that was landing.

“There are often those who have been given a drone for Christmas, and who do not know that they have to deal with a 5 kilometer exclusion zone. They think the drone is just a toy and believe it’s okay as long as you just fly up and down,” told Axel Knutsen, program manager for drones in Avinor Flysikring AS, to NRK.

In November 2019, Bodø airport was closed twice in less than two weeks, after someone flew a drone near the runway.

Knutsen says drones have a high potential for damage if they hit a window, engine or wing on an aircraft.

“That’s why we either have to stop air traffic or redirect it to maintain safety,” he says.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today

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