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Got arrested in Europe with a fine of 470 euros.

Slava Ivanov

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Joined
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St. Petersburg, Russia
I hope you'll find this message helpful.

Well, I had my wedding trip in February through Denmark, Germany and Netherlands and everything was perfect until the day "x".
The only thing I knew about regulations was the maximum flight height (which is 120 metres or so).
I always fly with respect to community and people around, being careful to all the details.

That day we went to the fortress in Copenhagen. It's a big open to public area with tress, parks and some historical buildings with no any restricting signs around, I'm sure 99,9%.
I found small square with no any people and decided to use my mavic. Once it was in the air I received a message in the app that this is "no flight zone" and drone will land automatically in 10 seconds. Usually I receive kind of message before take off, but not that time.

Once I landed it took less than a minute for military guys to arrest us. Yes, they were not police men. They said that we tried to use the drone near military base.
We were sure that the buildings around were museum objects but in fact they weren't.
So they asked us to proceed to their territory, took my drone away and brought a glass of water. We were not allowed to even move as guys with the machine guns were staying next to us.
Police arrived in 7-10 minutes and asked to pay a fine of 470 euros straight away and proceed to police station then.
It was very stressful. I felt like I'm going to loose my drone forever, paying big fine and being deported. I'm not kidding as all they guys were very serious.
We said that we are tourist and didn't know all the details. That point didn't work.
Then we said that drone was in the air for less than 30 seconds. That point also didn't work.
Then we said that app (DJI GO 4) landed drone automatically and we followed all the messages appeared on the screen. Thanks God that was the right thing to say as I was about to pay the fine.

Policemen's mood changed, I showed them the application and they took all the details about it. Now fine will go to DJI as they said.

By they way leaving the passports in the car was also not the right thing as it goes against the rules. We had to go to the parking lot all together.

Hope that you will be much more prepared than me and will never have such an experience. I learnt the lesson.
 
a very nice story ,but as far as the "fine" going to DJI you can forget that the buck stops with the PIC and thats you
 
Scary. This is why traveling to other countries scares me. They don't all have the same rights and freedoms we have here in America. I mean yeah the police can arrest you but the military isnt going to arrest you with machine guns. I'm glad everything ended up working out fairly good for you and I hope you find a way to get the drone back.
 
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It is the responsibility of the pilot to fly in accordance with the regulations. In Denmark, you have to be registered and pass a test to get a permit to fly. Not only near military installations, generally. That is the reason I do not fly in Denmark, onlly in Germany, Netherlands and Sweden.

There will be no fine for DJI, they were not flying. You are lucky that they accepted your excuses, but in the end, it was your fault, you were flying.
 
Scary. This is why traveling to other countries scares me. They don't all have the same rights and freedoms we have here in America. I mean yeah the police can arrest you but the military isnt going to arrest you with machine guns. I'm glad everything ended up working out fairly good for you and I hope you find a way to get the drone back.
Fortunately they returned the drone back after all.
 
I
It is the responsibility of the pilot to fly in accordance with the regulations. In Denmark, you have to be registered and pass a test to get a permit to fly. Not only near military installations, generally. That is the reason I do not fly in Denmark, onlly in Germany, Netherlands and Sweden.

There will be no fine for DJI, they were not flying. You are lucky that they accepted your excuses, but in the end, it was your fault, you were flying.
I absolutely agree! EU is very strict about it as I read recently.
 
For the future:


this is to comply with to be abel to fly legal in Denmark
 
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Choose your country from the menu...
Great web-site. Thanks.
But, for example, as for Moscow the information is incorrect (I'll send them a message). It's illegal to fly over whole downtown Moscow by law as of December, 2018.
 
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I work at a small general aviation class D airport in the U.S. and because of that I take TSA re-currency training once a year. Looking at airplanes could be considered suspicious behavior.
Ok! I get it..but when I was a kid that was my absolute favorite pastime. It still is....
Sounds like you handled your situation in a calm proper manner. I'm glad it all worked out for you
 
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