Hungarian authorities are drafting strict regulations for drone flights to protect lives, prevent terrorism and ensure flights at Hungarian airports run on time.
The draft law was discussed at a recent Budapest conference between Hungary’s judiciary, law enforcement and air traffic control experts.
In line with the European Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) EU-wide drone regulations published this June and coming into effect on June 1, Hungarian authorities are also working on a unified set of rules for 2020.
An important part of the new regulations is to establish a set of fixed fines, similar to those applied for motorists, said police lieutenant-colonel Andrea László at the conference.
Currently, unauthorized drone flights can be subject to three different sets of misdemeanor regulations, with fines ranging from nothing to 100 million forints (€300,000). Authorities plan to make the fines more uniform and standardized. In those cases where a drone threatens somebody’s life or poses a serious danger, authorities will be able to charge operators with a crime.
Last year alone, unauthorized drone flights in Hungary caused several hundreds of million forints of damage, often by delaying flights. No accidents were reported but these air traffic delays have had serious economic repercussions.
Drone flights in the air space around airports will be banned and controlling a drone under the influence of alcohol or drugs will also be punishable.
Hungarian air control authority, Hungarocontrol, will also develop an application through which users will be able to apply online for flight permits.
Title image: DJI Phantom 4 drone in flight (source: dji.com)
