CCTV News: According to the WeChat official account of the Ministry of State Security, in recent years, drones have been widely used in geological exploration, disaster rescue, agricultural plant protection, environmental monitoring, aerial photography and other fields, becoming an important tool for our production and life. However, some organizations and personnel ignore relevant flight ban regulations and use drones to carry out illegal aerial photography, surveying and mapping, posing threats to national security. How to carry out drone aerial photography and mapping legally and in compliance with regulations? Let us learn and master it through the following questions.

Question 1: Can individuals and units conduct aerial photography and mapping?

Correct answer: Individuals and units can conduct aerial photography, surveying and mapping after obtaining relevant qualifications.

Legal basis

According to Articles 27 to 32 of the Surveying and Mapping Law of the People's Republic of China and Article 35 of the Interim Regulations on the Flight Management of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, professional and technical personnel engaged in surveying and mapping activities must have the corresponding professional qualification conditions. Units engaged in surveying and mapping activities using civil unmanned aircraft can only engage in surveying and mapping activities after obtaining surveying and mapping qualification certificates in accordance with the law.

Warning Case

When Lin, a staff member of a surveying and mapping company, did not have the qualifications to drive a drone and did not submit a flight application to the airspace management department, he unauthorizedly used his own assembled drone to take photos and mapping. He was detected as an abnormal air condition by a certain war zone radar, which consumed a lot of resources to deal with it. In the end, the surveying and mapping company and Lin compensated the relevant units for losses of 120,000 yuan and published an apology statement in the national news media.

Question 2: Can the drone be cracked at will?

Correct answer: No.

Legal basis

Articles 8 and 14 of the "Interim Regulations on the Flight Management of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles" stipulate that when engaging in the design, production and use of civil unmanned aircraft systems, they must comply with the national regulations on real-name registration and activation, flight area restrictions, emergency response, network information security, etc., and take effective measures to reduce atmospheric pollutants and noise emissions. If the micro, light and small civil unmanned aircraft systems are modified, they must comply with the relevant mandatory national standards.

Warning Case

Zhang illegally purchased a drone unban certificate through an overseas website, and published service advertisements to crack drone ban, flight restriction and height restriction through a second-hand trading platform. After investigation, Zhang lifted the ban on 21 drones and made a profit of 15,000 yuan in violation of regulations. In the end, Zhang was severely punished by law.

Question 3: Is it illegal to take aerial photography of confidential places?

Correct answer: Illegal.

Legal basis

"Interim Regulations on the Flight Management of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles" Article 34: It is prohibited to use unmanned aircraft to illegally shoot military facilities, military industrial facilities or other confidential places.

Warning Case

A surveying and mapping company, while undertaking the land surveying and mapping of a commercial real estate project, used a drone to take aerial high-definition shots of a confidential area in a certain area in my air and stored the photos on a computer hard drive connected to the Internet. After investigation, the images taken by the surveying and mapping company contained state secrets, and the surveying and mapping company and the personnel involved in the case have been severely punished by law.

Question 4: Is the subcontracting of surveying and mapping projects credible?

Correct answer: Not credible.

Legal basis

Article 58 of the Surveying and Mapping Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that surveying and mapping units shall not subcontract the contracted surveying and mapping projects.

Warning Cases

The head of an overseas organization, "Sister Qi", instigated domestic personnel Huang Moumou to take 384 photos of important military facilities involved in the name of commercial photography, architectural surveying and mapping, and asked Huang Moumou to transmit it to the overseas country through the Internet. In the end, Huang Moumou was sentenced to 14 years in prison, deprived of political rights for five years, and confiscated his personal property of 40,000 yuan.

Tips from the National Security Agency

If the general public finds suspicious clues such as using drones to illegally take photos of our key sensitive places, military target areas, equipment and facilities, they can report through the 12339 National Security Agency reporting and acceptance telephone number, the online reporting and acceptance channel (www.12339.gov.cn), the WeChat official account of the Ministry of Security, or directly report to the local national security agency.