March 2, 2023 7.00 pm This story is over 22 months old

Man fined for flying drone dangerously near Hurricane at air show

It was flying above thousands of people

A collision between a drone and a Lincolnshire aircraft could have been a ‘catastrophe’.

Mark Bagguley has been fined £3000 for flying the drone at Buxton Carnival while the Hurricane was flying past.

The 49-year-old has also been issued a six-month suspended prison sentence.

The aircraft is based at RAF Coningsby, and is one of only 12 still flying.

PC Matthew Moore of Derbyshire Police helped to track down Bagguley after being made aware of photos of the close call.

“Any drone in the air will pose a danger to any manned aircraft. With it being an aircraft like the Hurricane, it could potentially come down,” he told BBC Look North.

“We had 15,000 to 20,000 persons present at Buxton at the time. That would have caused a catastrophe in its own right.”

Flight data proved Bagguley had been flying the drone close to the Hurricane.

He pleaded guilty to endangering an aircraft at Chesterfield Magistrates’ Court, and said he’d mistakenly thought he had time before the flypast.

Bagguley wrote in a letter: “I owe the pilot an apology for unnecessarily putting his and other people’s lives at risk that day. I can only thank God that no collision occurred.”


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