A report by ANAC, which regulates Portuguese air space, said that 27 cases were recorded in the summer alone, accounting for 60 percent of all incidents, including near-misses with passenger planes at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport.
Numbers this year are also substantially higher than in 2017, when 37 cases were reported.
Back in July, a new law came into force that requires drones to be registered, makes civil liability insurance mandatory and outlines fines for people who use drones outside the law.
The company which is currently the leader in civilian drones and aerial imaging technology, announced this week that is improving its geofencing technology to refine the airspace limitations for drone flights near airports, in order to provide smarter protection for airplanes in critical areas.
DJI said new technology will be tested in coming weeks at
airports in the United States. Upgrades in other regions will follow in due course.
The new system allows GEO to create detailed three-dimensional “bow tie” safety zones surrounding runway flight paths, and to use complex polygon shapes around other sensitive facilities, rather than just simple circles.
DJI first created No-Fly Zones for its drones in 2013 and introduced the more refined GEO system three years later, adding live updates and new zones for prisons and nuclear power plants, while providing flexible self-unlocking for professionals.
DJI geofencing uses GPS and other navigational satellite signals to automatically help prevent drones from flying near sensitive locations such as airports, prisons, nuclear power plants and high-profile events. In certain locations, a DJI drone cannot take off or fly in a geofenced area without special authorisation.