No punishment after drone incident at Regina International Airport

No punishment will be given out after an incident involving a drone at the Regina International Airport.

Early in the morning on Wednesday, June 1, a Java Post Productions drone was doing some photography near the airport. A report from Transport Canada said it was close to runway 13.

One requirement for using a drone in that area is that the operator must be able to be contacted by the airport. In this case, a Cessna owned by Enbridge was coming in to land, but the airport tower couldn’t contact the drone operator.

“We just had a communication failure with one of the cell phones that we use. We were able to talk to the tower right after the incident happened,” explained Joan Speirs, vice-president at Java Post Productions.

“The other plane that was coming in was not real close, and our guys did see them on the horizon – we were only about 200 ft. off the ground.”

The Cessna was warned about the drone, but landed fine and there was no damage or injuries on either end. According to the report, the drone landed about 20 minutes after the incident.

Java has been doing aerial photography with drones for the past three years, navigating the often-changing red tape associated with it. But Speirs said they’ve never had an incident like this before.

“Partly due to the fact that our record is so good with NAV CANADA no further action is being taken, but of course, it’s dangerous work so everybody has to do the right thing,” said Speirs, referring to the report filed by the airport.

Speirs said the company has done an internal review, and made some changes to procedures so something like this won’t happen in the future.