For anyone planning on visiting Norway, take the strict rules on drone flying seriously.

A tourist couple from Singapore in their 60ies flew a drone over Akershus fortress in Oslo Monday night. They had planned to visit Norway for two weeks.

There is a no fly zone in the city centre. Police arrested them and charged them for breaking the no drone ban.

The husband have all ready plead guilty. He gets a 8000 kroner fine, the drone is confiscated and the husband will be deported from Norway. Their holiday plans are destroyed.

https://www.vartoslo.no/akershus-festning-andre-kvistad-alme-drone/turist-fra-singapore-fikk-bot-pa-8000-kroner-for-ulovlig-droneflygning-ved-akershus-festning/994824

by Foxtrot-Uniform-Too

33 comments

  2. I would feel sorry for them but at this point it should be common knowledge that flying drones over certain areas in this political climate is a massive no-go.

    Do your research before flying your drones.

  3. Worth noting that Akershus Fortress is the location of both the headquarters of the Norwegian Ministry of Defence and the Prime Minister’s office. So it’s one of the most sensitive sites in Norway.

    The tourists from Singapore probably didn’t realize. But it’s not hard to see why the book was thrown at them.

  4. payin the “stupid” tax.

    i do feel bad for them, its not fault theyre stupid, doubt they purposefully broke the laws, being in their 60s and from singapore. but, sometimes being stupid comes with consequences. people love to hate cause they cant imagine themselves doing something so obviously stupid *to them*, until they fuck up and do something stupid themselves.

  8. As a Singaporean living in EU… I apologize. We are usually quite well-behaved when abroad but this couple clearly didn’t bother to check the drone flying rules and no-fly zones.

    Singapore itself has very restrictive drone flying rules so it’s a lame excuse if they claim they “didn’t know”. They are not strangers to rules either.

    I’m glad their dumb asses got served right back to them.

  9. Too weak penalty. Drones are pissing people off all over the country. They should be banned.

  10. Literally the first thing I remember seeing when I recently entered Norway by ferry was “FOLLOW THESE RULES SO YOUR DRONE ISN’T CONFISCATED!”

  11. Don’t feel bad for them at all. Read up on the law and follow it.

  14. Just stop using drones when you visit other countries. A normal camera works.

  16. Just to be clear here, they have NOT been deported. Immigration authorities have opened a case on deporting the husband, but there is no verdict yet.

  17. I am quite curious what will happen if they would try to do such a stunt in Singapore. 

    I think it would be much expensiver. 

    General rule: don’t fly a drone in urban areas if you are not sure about local legislation. In Europe usually some permits and licenses are required for such operations in urban area. I guess the enforcement could be lax, but flying over ministry of defence is just plain stupid and they are very lucky about they got away with quite reasonable fine.

  20. As an American. When I read the title, I was really hoping it was an American tourist that got deported. 😂

  22. It sucks, but ignorance of the law is not an excuse. And this goes both ways, Google exists, AI exists, asking a question exists, so there’s really no excuse for not knowing. And there’s always the age old saying, if in doubt don’t do it.

  23. They are lucky they didn’t go to prison. If you did that in the US, ooff, you’d be in prison for like 3-8 years. Then deported

  24. Where does it say he is deported? I have read 3 articles and none even mentions that – one says it is considered, where it says they are released after

  25. Yes, most of the ministry buildings are in ytre festningsområdet. But there are Forsvarets høgskole buildings inside the castle walls. Members of the public can’t just walk inside and wander around.

  26. try flying drones over a military area in a different country, see what happens lol

  27. Jesus Christ. Every person with a drone KNOWS that flying a drone over cities is at least frowned upon, if not forbidden and heavily fined, depending on the country. The info about the minimum distance from the human settlements is available for every damn country on the planet. A man who tries to fly a drone over AKERSHUS FESTNING in Oslo shows severe lack of understanding where he is.

  28. First thing I thought was the risk vs reward calculation here. Akershus festning is regulated as a military facility with strict laws against drone footage. It is in the middle of the city and getting caught is almost guaranteed.

    At the same time it is probably the least interesting military target for drone footage in the entire country. There’s a few national guard kids hanging around and a museum. How can it be worth the risk?? You can even walk around and take photographs!

  29. Search up “R102 Oslo” if you want to see the restriction zone for Oslo. Other than that I always recommend using http://www.safetofly.no and http://www.ippc.no (more up-to-date NOTAMs) for figuring out where it is allowed to fly.

    If you are using any data collection sensors that isn’t an RGB camera – e.g. thermal camera, LiDAR, etc. – you also have to notify NSM through their website (but you don’t need approval).

  30. I visited the fortress this summer. There are signs at the fortress entrance explicitly telling you that drones are prohibited.

  31. If we follow the rule of assuming stupidity first and malice second, I think he knew that what he did was illegal, but took his chances to get a good movie shot.

    He may not have realized beforehand that this old fortress is still in use by the military and protected accordingly.

    The other option is that he was paid by someone who wanted to see how well the anti-drone system in that area works. The police could not prove that, so they let him go.

  33. To be honest, you are pretty damn stupid if you just fly a drone at free will in this day and age.

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