Earlier this year, a resident of Barrow-in-Furness was prosecuted for flying a radio-controlled aircraft in restricted airspace over BAE Systems’ nuclear submarine facility. A similar incident occurred in May when a man was was questioned by the FBI for crashing a camera-equipped sUAV close to the Bridgeport Harbour Electricity Generating Station in Conneticut. No one was injured in either case but both represented pretty serious incidents in terms of flying within restricted airspace.

There have been numerous reports of injuries, even fatalities, caused by loss of control of an sUAV and some pretty harrowing images can easily be found online. Reported cases include a bridegroom who was struck in the face by a quadcopter flown by an adventurous wedding photographer, and the crashing of a hexacopter into the grandstand at Virginia Motorsports Park, injuring five. The second half of 2013 was particularly bad, with fatalities in Texas, Korea and Brazil and the horrendous case of a 19-year-old who died instantly in a Brooklyn park when the blades of his radio controlled aircraft struck his head and neck.