Members of the Puyuma community from Taitung City traveled to Taipei on Thursday to protest the imposition of a fine by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) for flying a drone at an event in 2020.
The group from the Puyuma Sakuban Community (南王部落) of Taitung protested in front of the Taipei High Administrative Court to support Wu Yao-chang (吳曜昌), then-head of the community’s youth council and defendant in the case.
Wu flew a drone equipped with a camera to film cultural events at Beinan Cultural Park (卑南文化公園) in Taitung on Jan. 28, 2020, said Hung Ching-cheng (洪慶誠), a Puyuma artist and the teacher in charge of organizing the programs.
“It was a large joint feast for Puyuma communities in this region, held by the Sabuban Community after a 20-year rotation, so we asked Wu to assist in flying the drone to record the ceremony and cultural performances,” Wu said, adding that they posted the video online, which was reported for an alleged contravention of airspace restrictions, whereby Wu received a fine from CAA in March 2022.
Assisted by the Legal Aid Foundation, Wu filed an administrative lawsuit in seeking to repeal the fine.
“CAA erred by imposing the fine against Wu, when they should have sent the fine to the whole Sakuban Community as Wu was asked by the community to help in recording the video footage,” the statement said.
“CAA officials were negligent in their administrative duty, as they did not provide information to the public to raise awareness on airspace regulations,” it added.
“The CAA ignored the ‘traditional aerial domain,’ which would be covered by the Indigenous Peoples Basic Law (原住民族基本法), therefore, we demand that the CAA return the rights to ‘traditional aerial domain’ to our Puyuma people,” it said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Asenay Daliyalrep, who attended the protest, said people in the Sakuban Community support aviation safety regulations, but the CAA failed to publicize and raise awareness on drones and airspace contraventions.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Sra Kacaw said that drones and other uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) are regulated by the Civil Aviation Act (民用航空法) starting in March 2020, while the event took place in January that year, therefore the CAA had room for consideration, but it decided to mete out the penalty.
CAA regulations say that flying drones or UAVs is forbidden near military installations, airports and air corridors used by aircraft, and in areas designated as green and yellow zones in cities above 60m.
The regulation stipulates that drones or UAVs that weigh more than 250g must be registered and people operating drones that weigh more than 2kg must possess a CAA-approved license, which can be acquired by passing a written and an operating test, and that persons flying such drone without a license would be subject to a fine of NT$60,000 to NT$300,000.
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