MINSK, 13 November (BelTA) – The Belarusian Defense Ministry, the Aviation Department of the Transport and Communications Ministry, and the Belarusian Unmanned Aviation Federation are in favor of developing rules for flying drones in Belarus, BelTA learned from an article in the Respublika newspaper.
German Aleksandrov, Head of the Air Space Usage Office of the Belarusian Defense Ministry, believes it is necessary to set up an interagency working group involving representatives of government agencies and public organizations in order to come up with an effective regulation system, which would take into account a considerable number of security and safety factors. The officer is quoted as saying it is necessary to build a risk management model and an appropriate system to classify the flying drones. It would be a good idea to dedicate a special chapter to flying drones during mass events since a lot of risks and peculiarities are involved, German Aleksandrov believes.
In turn, Gleb Bondarik, Deputy Chairman of the Belarusian Unmanned Aviation Federation, noted the federation had come up with recommendations on flying small drones during mass events. Assigning a dedicated flight operations officer is one of them. The officer is supposed to brief drone operators before flights and distribute sectors and altitudes among them. The federation has forwarded its instructions to the Internal Affairs Ministry and the Aviation Department of the Transport and Communications Ministry. In turn, the Internal Affairs Ministry has come up with an internal instruction, which police officers can follow to check permits and apprehend violators.
The experts agree that if the rules are to be developed, they have to be lenient about flights outside forbidden areas at altitudes below 100m within the line-of-sight range and with identification markings. Flights beyond these limits will require training, tail numbers, and air space usage permits, the specialists believe.
For now drone flights in Belarus are regulated by the Belarus president decree on flying model aircraft and the Council of Ministers resolution on using model aircraft in the country. Drones can be flown outside forbidden areas, within the line-of-sight range, below 100m above earth or water. Drones weighing more than 0.5kg must have identification. Aerial photography is forbidden without authorization from the General Staff of the Armed Forces.
At the same time there are no clear rules for flying drones in Belarus. Two incidents involving unmanned aerial vehicles have been registered this year. A drone was dangerously close to a landing Belavia aircraft above the Zaslavl water reservoir in August. Another drone was dangerously close to a Mi-2 helicopter during the Lidbeer festival in Lida, Grodno Oblast in September. Guests of the festival were on board the helicopter to admire the festivities from above. The pilot of that drone has not been found. The person, who has uploaded the video online, denies having flown the drone.
