Drone users have been warned by police to stay away from a Nottinghamshire airbase where the Red Arrows are conducting low-flying training. The display team were recently granted permission to carry out the practice flights over RAF Syerston, near Newark.
The move has prompted some concern from people living near the airbase but given that the training period is due to last until April 17, Nottinghamshire Police has warned drone users they will now have to stay away from the area. The force says it doesn't want to see an incident similar to one in Derbyshire after a drone pilot recently pleaded guilty to endangering an RAF flight over a carnival event last summer.
Sergeant Vince Saunders, chief drone pilot at Nottinghamshire Police, said: "Drones can be great fun to fly but they can also pose a significant danger to low flying aircraft. With the world-famous Red Arrows display team now operating in the skies above Nottinghamshire, we are reminding all users to take additional care about where and when they fly."
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The low-flying training would previously have taken place at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, the former home of the Red Arrows, which closed in September as part of cost-cutting measures by the Ministry of Defence. The new restrictions around RAF Syerston ban all aircraft, including drones, from a five-mile radius around the base.
Sergeant Saunders added: "The current restrictions in and around RAF Syerston are applied on a rolling basis and it is the responsibility of all drone operators to check when those restrictions are in place. A drone operator in Buxton, Derbyshire, was recently convicted of endangering a flight by the RAF’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and we are keen to avoid any similar incidents in Nottinghamshire."
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