THE LAW 101: Before you fly that drone

By Samson Lardy Anyenini

The arrest of three persons for allegedly flying drones over the EOCO headquarters is a useful reminder: owning a drone does not give you an unrestricted right to fly it wherever you please.

Ghana regulates drones, legally, Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), principally under the Ghana Civil Aviation Act, 2024 (Act 1120) and the Ghana Civil Aviation (RPAS) Directives, 2018, Part 28.

The rules begin even before take-off. Prior GCAA approval is required to import, export, sell or operate a drone or its parts. The drone must be registered, and registration alone is not permission to fly. Part 28.7 is emphatic: “No person shall fly an RPAS without a Permit issued by the Authority.”

There are additional rules for commercial operations, night flights, flights above 400 feet, flights around airports and helipads, and flights within restricted, prohibited, danger and Special Use Areas.

Breaches attract sanctions. Depending on the particular violation and status of the operator, penalties applicable to individuals may run from 1,000 to 12,000 penalty units – GH¢12,000 to GH¢144,000.

There is an even more serious offence. Section 40 of Act 1120 provides 50,000 – 200,000 penalty units – GH¢600,000-GH¢2.4 million – or 5–30 years’ imprisonment, or both, for violating a prohibition against flying over specified airspace.

But note: the s.40 punishment does not arise merely because the place is a sensitive State installation. The particular airspace must have been formally prohibited under s.40. That must first be established before the 5–30 year sanction can properly be invoked.

So, in the EOCO incident, the legal questions go beyond simply asking, “Why were they flying a drone there?” Was it lawfully acquired or imported? Registered? Was there a permit to fly? Was any additional authorisation required for that airspace? And was the EOCO airspace actually within an area formally prohibited or restricted by law?

BOTTOM LINE: The drone may be yours. The airspace is not.

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