Drones are being flown dangerously close to passenger planes

Drones must be kept away from aircraft, helicopters, airports and airfields.

Rules that drone owners will have to abide mean that drones will have be kept within the pilot’s line of sight and must not be flown above a maximum height of 400 feet.

A drone was involved in a near-miss with a passenger plane over a Scottish airport, it has emerged.

Unfortunately, because (a minority) of drone fans are unable to get that into their heads, the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has issued stronger guidance.

Johnson added that recklessly endangering an aircraft is a criminal offence and those convicted could face a five-year jail sentence.

Tim Johnson, the CAA’s policy director, said in a statement: “Interest in drones has developed rapidly in the last couple of years and our main concern is to ensure owners of drones can enjoy this rapidly growing technology safely and have regard for all other airspace users when doing so”.

“One of the more serious near-misses in the previous year involved a drone coming within 20ft of an incoming passenger plane at Heathrow and this amongst other incidents rang alarm bells over the possibility of drones flying into flight paths”.

Drone users can be prosecuted under the Air Navigation Order 2009 if they fly their gadgets beyond the line of sight (defined by the legislation as 500 meters horizontally or 121 meters vertically).

The CAA said it had recorded six other incidents between May 2014 and March 2015 at airports around the United Kingdom in which drones and piloted craft nearly collided.

With the use of commercial drones for applications from filming to sports events and agriculture booming, the European Union is now working on new regulations for drones to protect the safety and privacy of its citizens.

The code also says that drones carrying cameras must stay at least 50m away from people, vehicles and structures and must not approach a large group of people closer than 150m.

‘Pilots want to ensure the operators are adequately trained and the correct precautions are put in place to avoid collisions in the air.’.

The CAA said it welcomed moves by drone manufacturers to build “geo-fencing” into their products which stops drones being flown into certain areas, such as airport control zones.