A drone flying around a heavy metal music festival that featured Megadeath as one of the headliners caused a nearby airport’s runway to close, forcing several flights to divert and delaying many others.
If travel weren’t hard enough already right now, fans flying a drone at a heavy metal music festival in the United Kingdom made it worse when they flew their drone too close to the East Midlands Airport, forcing the runway to shut down and causing flights to divert.
The Download Festival, an annual 3-day heavy metal music event that is held near Donington Park in Leicestershire, has been held since 2003. It often features heavy hitters in the music scene including bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Korn, and many more.
This year’s Download Festival was headlined by metal superstars Megadeath, the Deftones, and Iron Maiden, along with acts like Volbeat, Sepultura, Ice Nine Kills, and Mastadon. The location, Donington Park, is just slightly over a mile away from the nearby East Midlands Airport, which makes for easy travel to and from the event.
However, it was fans flying their drones at the event that caused a bit of a stir when they flew them too close to the airport – a crime – and the airport was forced to close its runway.
According to the Daily Mail, the runways were closed for a little over an hour last weekend, causing six passenger flights and two cargo flights to divert – adding to summer travel woes being experienced by most UK travelers.
Flying a drone too close to an airport can be a violation of the Civil Aviation Act of 1982 and is punishable by fine or imprisonment. Local authorities have detection equipment and have enhanced patrols in hopes of catching offenders.
