Tourists’ drones create hazard for civil aviation
Tourists using drones to capture dramatic holiday photos are proving a lot more dangerous than those wielding selfie sticks.
After several close calls between tourist-operated drones and aircraft, Southern Lakes Helicopters operations manager Lloyd Matheson is trying to get drone use banned on the Lake Te Anau waterfront.
‘‘They will take an aircraft out in flight.’’
He said the most serious incident last year involved a drone that got close to the tail rotor of a landing helicopter carrying passengers.
‘‘The pilot was so concerned he rushed out and virtually physically grabbed the guy and said, ‘you just about killed us all’.’’
Another near miss between a helicopter and a drone was reported by a water taxi operator.
Matheson said that in the past 12 months he had spoken to four tourists oblivious to the rules around drone usage.
‘‘There was one where a drone collided with blue gum trees close to the helipad, fell out of the sky, and beat itself to death on the foreshore.
‘‘The owner came wandering along from quite some distance away, he’d lost it and had pushed ‘return to home,’ and it was on its way back to where he was, but it hit the blue gums instead.
‘‘It could have flown into the path of one of our aircraft.’’
Matheson said he had spoken to the Department of Conservation and the Southland District Council about passing a bylaw to stop drone use in the area, but at the very least a sign was needed in the lake front car park to remind tourists of the rules.
On Friday a Chilean tourist was convicted of careless use of a drone under the Civil Aviation Act and ordered to forfeit his machine, after he used it to get footage of a large fire near Wanaka last month.
His actions forced the grounding of seven helicopters, delaying aerial firefighting as the blaze spread.
Efforts are already under way to better educate tourists about their responsibilities and DOC and Tourism New Zealand websites have links to information about drone usage.
McKenzie District tourism office leaflets printed in Mandarin for Chinese tourists visiting Tekapo include warnings that they need permission from landowners to fly drones, and that aerial photography above the Church of the Good Shepherd on the lake front is not permitted.