When “Just a Minute” Becomes BVLOS: Legal Lessons for Drone Operators from CHIRP’s September 2025 Reports

27th October 2025

By Richard Ryan, Barrister & Drone Lawyer – practical takeaways, not legal advice for your specific situation.

Why this matters

CHIRP’s Drone/UAS FEEDBACK Edition 14 (September 2025) curates incidents that look ordinary until you view them through a law-and-liability lens:
three model-flying events that drifted into unintentional BVLOS, a Mini 2 injury at a carnival, a controller or app freeze mid-mission,
a fatigue-tinged flight that autolanded at 20 percent battery into a tree, and an RTH climb toward powerlines. Each contains avoidable legal exposure
that you can mitigate with better planning, clear roles, and a few settings changes.

The incidents, in plain English – and what the law expects

1) Unintentional BVLOS x3 (BMFA community)

  • What happened: One EDF jet lost power from a poor solder joint after a user modification; two other flights went BVLOS when sea fog or thermal lift arrived faster than forecast.
  • Legal frame (UK): The Drone and Model Aircraft Code requires direct VLOS and the ability to determine orientation at all times. If you cannot do that, the flight is non-compliant.
  • Practical fix: Treat post-purchase alterations as airworthiness-significant and inspect them before each flight. Use BMFA’s SWEETS pre-flight. Adopt a simple “radial scan” habit: eyes out (aircraft and airspace) then quick glance down (controller or map) then eyes out again.

2) Nottingham Carnival injury (Mini 2)

  • What happened: A minor pressed “land” while the supervising adult was distracted; the drone struck another child who was sitting on someone’s shoulders. Police confiscated the aircraft. No Operator ID was displayed and it was flown over a crowd.
  • Legal frame (UK): Never fly over crowds or assemblies of people. Label the aircraft with a visible Operator ID. Where injury occurs, expect scrutiny under general endangerment provisions.
  • Practical fix: Establish a safe TOLA (take-off and landing area) away from the crowd. Use aviation-style handover phraseology: “You have control” / “I have control”. Keep controller audio alerts audible. Supervision of minors must be active and informed by the Code.

3) “My app froze” (Mavic 4 Pro + RC2; 87-waypoint mission)

  • What happened: Switching to Map View mid-mission froze the Fly app. The pilot used the hardware RTH button to recover the aircraft. Possible overload from running a large waypoint mission while screen-recording.
  • Legal frame: You remain responsible for safe operation even when the UI hiccups. The defensible question is whether your procedures anticipated foreseeable failures, such as hardware RTH muscle memory, function checks, and reboot-on-the-ground policies.
  • Practical fix: For long waypoint jobs, test the profile without screen-recording first. Pre-brief the hardware RTH action. Use a visual observer if you will be heads-down.

4) Fatigue and stress (power-line inspection)

  • What happened: The pilot became disoriented, lost VLOS about 1,700 ft from home, hit 20 percent battery, and, unaware that “land at 20 percent” was set, descended into a tree despite pressing RTH.
  • Practical fix: Know and brief your low-battery action (RTH vs auto-land vs hover) in the Operations Manual. Use two-crew where terrain or workload increases disorientation risk. Remember UK requirements to maintain VLOS and orientation at all times.

5) RTH vs powerlines (mapping mission)

  • What happened: An automated flight went off-nominal. On RTH, the aircraft likely contacted an obstacle while climbing. CHIRP notes the perception trap of judging wire clearance at range and reminds that wires sag mid-span.
  • Practical fix: Set RTH altitude locally before each flight, above towers, tree lines, cranes, and powerlines. Do not rely on obstacle avoidance to detect thin wires. Pre-flight, measure line heights relative to the home point and add margin for sag and wind.

Five legal pillars these cases keep hitting

  1. VLOS is non-negotiable. Keep the aircraft in direct sight and be able to tell its orientation, with a full view of surrounding airspace.
  2. Crowds are out of bounds. “Assemblies of people” are defined by the inability to disperse quickly, not by a headcount.
  3. Operator ID labelling is strict. Visible, legible, on the airframe. Sub-250 g camera drones typically still require an Operator ID.
  4. Endangerment provisions are broad. If someone is endangered or injured, regulators may consider reckless or negligent operation.
  5. Automation is not absolution. You own the outcomes of RTH, low-battery actions, waypointing, and controller limits.

Turn the lessons into a defensible playbook

A. Pre-flight and design for failure

  • Modified anything? Treat user soldering, adapters, and third-party leads as risk-relevant. Inspect that joint every flight until replaced with a proven assembly. Log the check.
  • Weather is slippery. Do not rely on one app. Triangulate forecasts. Identify abort gates if visibility closes in (fog, showers, glare). Use SWEETS at the field.
  • Controller workload. For heavy waypoint missions, disable screen-recording unless proven stable. Rehearse hardware RTH and app-independent control.

B. RTH and battery settings you can defend

  • Set RTH altitude locally, every time. Clear known obstacles and powerlines. Consider Advanced RTH where available.
  • Know low-battery behavior. Document thresholds in the Operations Manual, brief them to the crew, and confirm on the controller before take-off.

C. People, roles, and sterile cockpit

  • Observer next to you for heads-down tasks, with real-time verbal coordination.
  • Minors at the sticks? Only with active oversight, formal handovers, and never within or over a crowd.
  • Events and assemblies. Create buffer zones and safe TOLA sites. If a client insists on crowd-proximate shots, the safest and most defensible answer is often no without appropriate authorization and controls.

D. Evidence and reporting (preserve the facts)

  • After any occurrence, preserve flight logs, app caches, screen recordings, controller settings, and note battery and RTH configuration.
  • Consider confidential safety reporting to CHIRP in the UK (and NASA ASRS in the U.S.) to help the community learn without blame.

Bottom line

The risk here is ordinary: a conversation at the wrong moment, fog rolling in, a buried setting, an RTH altitude that did not clear wires,
or a controller pushed too hard. The Code’s core duties – VLOS, no crowds, proper ID labelling,
know your automation, and keep records – are your best legal shield when something goes wrong.

BMFA SWEETS: a quick pre-flight check

  • S — Sun: position now and later; glare; keep VLOS; avoid flying through the sun.
  • W — Wind: direction/strength/turbulence; safe areas for forced or dead-stick landings.
  • E — Environment: visibility (rain, mist, fog, fading light), people nearby, RF risks, space to fly a full circuit.
  • E — Emergencies: plan what you will do if there is a malfunction or airspace incursion; confirm failsafes.
  • T — Transmitter control: local Tx control and frequencies; correct model; trims/rates; Tx power/voltage.
  • S — Site rules: club rules, local byelaws, no-fly zones, height and airspace limits.

Note: some older guides use “Eventualities” for the first E. Meaning is the same: think ahead about what could happen and how you will handle it.

This article is general information, not legal advice. If an incident has occurred, speak to counsel at Blakiston’s Chambers before making statements to third parties and preserve all electronic evidence immediately.

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