A man has been convicted for drunk-driving a drone in what is thought to be the first case of its kind in Sweden.
The 55-year-old man was found guilty in July of flying the device at a classic car event in Rättvik, a town in Dalarna, central Sweden, in a temporary no-fly zone.
Police noticed the drone while flying their own device to monitor the event. When they found the spot where the drone was being controlled, a man whose bloodstream contained 0.69 parts alcohol for every 1,000 parts blood admitted to flying it.
Under Swedish law, anything above 0.2 parts alcohol in 1,000 parts blood is punishable; 1.0 is a serious offence. Drink-driving laws are strict in Sweden compared with other parts of Europe. In the UK, the limit is 0.8; in Spain, France and Belgium it is 0.5. In Romania and Hungary it is 0.
The man later claimed he did not fly the drone under the influence and blamed a friend who was not present when police arrived. He was fined 32,000 SEK (£2,341) to be paid across 80 days in daily fines of 400 SEK (£29).
It is understood to be the first case in Sweden in which a person has been prosecuted and convicted of drunkenness while flying a drone.
“I have not seen a case like this before,” Jenny Holden Nyström, prosecuting, told the broadcaster SVT. “I am satisfied with the verdict.”
Karin Hellmont, the district court president, said it applied the same punishment scale as it would for drink-driving to the drone case. “It is an aircraft. Even though it is flown by itself, it is controlled by someone down on the ground and can fall from a high height and injure someone,” she said.
