RCMP warns public about flying drones at Cavendish Beach Music Festival

The third and final day of the Cavendish Beach Music Festival started with a unique advisory from the P.E.I. RCMP on Sunday morning — "don’t fly your drone illegally — know the law.”

RCMP says 2 drone sightings on Saturday violated Transport Canada rules

Terrence McEachern · CBC News · Posted: Jul 09, 2017 2:44 PM EDT | Last Updated: July 9, 2017

The P.E.I. RCMP says it is illegal to fly drones at night, over an area with a lot of people or in a national park. (Terry Reith/CBC)

The third and final day of the Cavendish Beach Music Festival started with a unique advisory from the P.E.I. RCMP on Sunday morning — "don't fly your drone illegally — know the law."

2 drone sightings

Staff Sgt. Kevin Baillie explained that on Saturday afternoon and evening, there were two sightings of a drone flying over the concert site. He said those acts violate some of Transport Canada's regulations regarding personal drones.

"It's illegal to fly a personal drone at night and it's illegal to fly certain distances within people or crowds or events like this … And, it's also illegal to fly a drone in a national park," he said.

If charged, the owner or owners could receive hefty fines and have their drones seized.

Baillie said he didn't know if it was two drones or the same drone spotted twice.

He added that the concert promoters use a drone with permits that flies at certain times during the day, but not over the crowd. Baillie said the drone sightings on Saturday "definitely was not them."

"They alerted us as well that an unauthorized drone was over the site," he said.

The concern is that if a drone malfunctions or collides with another drone and falls into the crowd, someone could be injured. With the drone sightings on Saturday, Baillie said they were spotted flying for about five minutes and were flying low.

No fly zone

Baillie said for next year's festival, the RCMP is looking at establishing a geofence, similar to ones used at the Summerside and Charlottetown airports. He explained that geofencing would prevent drones from taking off and flying in that area due to a software modification from the drone's manufacturer.

"I think any large event … it's something we're going to explore that, as these drones become more common, the process to maybe have these areas no fly zones to try to keep as many drones as possible out of them," he said.