Three men in Beijing flew a drone for surveying, were forced to land by Air Force fighter jets, and then faced criminal prosecution
【提示】A Beijing-based aerial photography company dispatched personnel to operate a drone for aerial filming without applying for airspace. Due to the sudden incident, military authorities urgently intervened, sparking a controversy. Three individuals involved in the case, including Hao, were arrested by police and charged by Pinggu District Court with endangering public safety through dangerous means.
【案例】According to the prosecution, on December 28 last year, the company's head instructed flight team leader Hao and employees Qiao and Li to operate a drone for aerial surveying and mapping of a public airport project in Sanhe, Hebei. The company lacked the required qualifications for aerial photography and surveying, and the drone was flown without prior airspace application. The next day, Hao and Qiao conducted aerial filming with the drone. Due to the lack of airspace clearance, military radar detected the drone as an unidentified flying object. The military dispatched two helicopters to intercept and force it to land, while other aircraft, personnel, and vehicles stood by or participated in the response. During this process, multiple civilian flights were diverted or delayed, causing a loss of 1.8 yuan to Air China. After investigating, military authorities notified the police.
The police apprehended Qiao and Li at the scene, while Hao voluntarily surrendered after receiving a phone call from the police. The prosecution argued that Hao and the other two clearly foresaw that their actions could endanger public safety but recklessly believed they could avoid harm, resulting in significant damage to public property. Their actions are suspected of endangering public safety through dangerous means. Pinggu Court has accepted the case, and a trial date will be set.
(Beijing Times)
[Legal Study] Discussing the "absence" of regulations governing surveying drones.
Surveying refers to activities such as measuring, collecting, and describing the shape, size, spatial position, and attributes of natural geographic elements or artificial surface structures, as well as processing and providing the resulting data, information, and outcomes. This activity is a preliminary and foundational task for national economic and social development, serving as an essential guarantee for economic and social progress. For example, the Fujian Provincial Surveying and Mapping Institute, in collaboration with the Provincial Marine Forecast Station and Xiamen University, conducted research on the National 863 Program project "Sub-topic of Integrated Application Demonstration for Fine Marine Environmental Monitoring: Drone Marine Monitoring System." This involved equipping drones with multi-band spectrometers to monitor water bodies, including red tides and oil spills at sea.
However, according to relevant civil aviation regulations, if an aircraft is to take off, it requires approval from three parties: the regional administration, the air traffic control bureau, and the air force. The regional administration is responsible for reviewing the flight approval plan and the applicant company's flight qualifications; the air traffic control bureau mainly determines whether it is suitable to schedule flights in that area and how to avoid civil aviation flights; the air force primarily decides whether the low-altitude airspace can be opened during a certain period.
The problem is that there are currently no regulations specifically targeting drone management in China, and there are no previous similar precedents for this case. Under current domestic laws and regulations (such as the "Four Laws and One Regulation," i.e., the Surveying and Mapping Law, the Military Facilities Protection Law, the National Security Law, the Law on Guarding State Secrets, and the Regulations on the Administration of Surveying and Mapping Results), there is no specific penalty basis for such behavior. However, this behavior has already affected the takeoffs and landings of over a dozen flights, which should be considered a relatively serious consequence. Therefore, the aforementioned incident will not only become the first criminal case precedent for such behavior but is also likely to spur the creation of China's first national public safety regulation for drones, providing significant guidance for similar cases in the future.
