Since the beginning of the year, 14 incidents involving drones have been reported by civil aviation
The government is to “advance by the end of this month” the submission of regulations for mandatory registration of drones over 250 grams, the Minister of Planning and Infrastructures, said today 14th July, admitting that “there is much to do.”
“The drones is a subject that worries me a lot,” said Minister Pedro Marques, during a parliamentary hearing at the Committee on Economy, Innovation and Public Works.
In response to questions from CDS-PP Hélder Amaral on what is being done in the framework of drone regulation, the official said he would move forward with the registration of drones, advocating that this will be “an important control instrument”.
Pedro Marques recalled that the future European regulation of unmanned aerial vehicles “should only enter into force in 2018”, arguing that the European Commission should work to anticipate the timetable.
At the end of June, the president of the National Civil Aviation Authority (ANAC), Luís Ribeiro, announced in parliament the intention to propose to the Government, by the end of July, a legislative project on the drones that makes it mandatory to register the equipment and the prohibition of use by children under 16 years.
At the end of a hearing at the Committee on Economy, Innovation and Public Works, Luís Ribeiro explained that “additional measures must be taken” due to the increase in occurrences with drones (unmanned aircraft).
Six months after the entry into force of the current regulation, the aviation regulator argued for a reinforcement of the rules “by legislative means”.
In addition to the mandatory registration of ‘drones’ exceeding 250 grams, the Government defends the obligation of liability insurance.
“We will not solve all the challenges,” said Pedro Marques, indicating that Portugal is not one of the European countries with the highest number of occurrences with unmanned aerial vehicles.
The United Kingdom and France lead the list of European countries with more occurrences with ‘drones’, reason why Portugal will follow the work of these two countries in terms of regulation.
For the minister, drone regulation has gained more discussion with recent news of aircraft occurrences, but the main risks are the invasion of the privacy of populations and the fall of these unmanned aircraft.
Pedro Marques said that technologies for the control of situations with drones are being tested, work being done between the regulator (ANAC), airport managers (ANA) and air traffic managers (NAV).
“We believe it will be feasible to install radars for the remote detection of these ‘drones,” he said, pointing out that there must be adequate authority forces to find the drone operators detected.