London Sights from a Quadcopter - Legal Concerns

[Charles Higham]

Simply amazed they didn't get arrested and charged for flying over the House of Commons. To state the obvious, this is a hyper-sensitive area for security. It's about the equivalent of buzzing the copter around The White House. I don't like photography restrictions any more than anyone else - I was once interviewed by plain-clothes police in London who approached me when I was harmlessly videoing the view over the Thames from the South Bank like any tourist, which was ridiculous - but it's not unreasonable to recognise there are limits when it comes to genuinely sensitive areas. To those who say that's paranoid then I would ask them to use their imagination. That aside, if they lost control of the copter (perfectly possible) and it fell on someone causing injury (again, perfectly possible given the number of people underneath) they would have been given a very large fine (probably sued too) and maybe sent to jail. Essentially they were being very irresponsible (or maybe just stupid) and risked bringing unwanted attention to a normally safe hobby which in turn could make authorities apply more restrictions.