The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee has seized a drone that was flown over the territory of Paleis Het Loo. An aerial platform from the fire brigade had to come because the drone had ended up in a tree. The Marechaussee is now investigating who owns the drone. There is a flight ban for drones above Paleis Het Loo.

Drone ended up in tree

The incident took place on Sunday afternoon, July 28. An attentive guard of the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee saw the drone fly over. After some time, the drone appeared to have flown into a tree. A fire brigade aerial platform was used to recover the aircraft.

The drone was seized by the Marechaussee immediately after the rescue.

A spokesperson explains why in De Stentor: “There are certain ‘no-go areas’ where you are not allowed to fly, not even with a drone. Many of those places are airports or military sites. It sometimes happens that drones fly in forbidden places at airports. We always try to track down the pilot in areas guarded by the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee.”

No-fly zone

Paleis Het Loo has been designated as a ‘vital infrastructure’ and is therefore a no-fly zone for drones in the Open category. The zones can be found in apps such as GoDrone and Aeret.

Screenshot of a Dutch airspace map marking a no-fly zone over vital infrastructure.

(cover photo: Zairon, CC-BY-SA)

This article first appeared on Dronewatch and is written by Wiebe de Jager who is also a DroneXL contributor.