THREE photographers were charged with endangering public security in Beijing after they tried to take aerial pictures with an illegal drone that caused chaos in the sky with passenger flights being diverted or delayed and the air force scrambling choppers, the public procuratorate said Wednesday.

    The main culprit, a man surnamed Hao, and two other men surnamed Qiao and Li, both employees of the Beijing Guoyao Xingtu Aerial Technology company, used the drone to take pictures of the Sanhe Business Jet Airport in neighboring Hebei Province for map making Dec. 28 last year.

    But the company was not qualified for drone photography and neither did it apply for airspace with the air traffic authority, the Pinggu District Public Procuratorate said.

    Hao and Qiao operated the oil-fuelled drone again the next day over Mafang Township in Beijing’s Pinggu District without the required permission again.

    The “Unidentified Flying Object” was spotted on the military radar and the People’s Liberation Army Air Force scrambled two military helicopters to get the drone down.

    Soldiers and vehicles were also put on standby.

    Beijing’s air traffic authority was forced to ask several civil aviation flights to detour or delay their takeoffs. Air China claimed it suffered over 18,000 yuan (US$2,932) in losses, the procuratorate said.

    Beijing police caught Qiao and Li while Hao later surrendered to the police. Police said the fixed-wing drone was 2.3 meters long, 60 centimeters tall with 2.6-meter-long wings.

    A Beijing court will hear the case soon.

    Unmanned aircraft have to be approved by the civil aviation authority before being used by any businesses.

    Companies using them also have to apply to the administration and report its flying details, especially those flying over downtown areas.

    A PLA Air Force official also said that “low, small, slow unmanned aircraft” must be regulated to avoid entering restricted military airspace.

    (SD-Agencies)