Drone ban over Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s home as baby due TODAY
POLICE are cracking down on drone flights near Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's new home after a rogue pilot narrowly avoided disaster trying to photograph their house.
The news comes as the Sun on Sunday exclusively revealed the royal couple are now on standby as the mum-to-be's due date is today.
Signs warning drone pilots that it is illegal to fly in the area have been erected on the boundary of the northern reaches of Windsor's Home Park which surrounds Frogmore Cottage.
The bright yellow signs read: 'POLICE FLIGHT SAFETY NOTICE: DRONES PROHIBITED IN THIS AREA'.
The signs also specifically spell out 'Launching, landing or operating drones or remote controlled aircraft is prohibited in this area. Contrary to Article 95 of the Air Navigation Order 2006.'
They include a black silhouette of a typical amateur quadcopter carrying a video camera with a black line through it to reinforce the message.
The area where the signs have been erected is not currently hosting a large open air assembly of people.
The next open air event anywhere nearby will be the Royal Windsor Horse show which does not begin for another 11 days on May 8 and there is no mention of that event on the drone-ban warnings signposts.
The signs have been erected by Thames Valley Police on main road through Windsor Home Park.
On April 6, a drone pilot risked disaster by trying to take aerial photographs of the royal couple's new home, Frogmore Cottage, in the middle of the Heathrow passenger jet flight path.
What are the drone flying regulations?
Article 95 of the Air Navigation Order 2006 prohibits drone pilots from flying unmanned aircraft in certain areas unless they have permission from the Civil Aviation Authority.
It prohibits drone flying over or within 150 metres of any congested area, over or within 150 metres of an organised open-air assembly of more than 1,000 persons, within 50 metres of any vessel, vehicle or structure which is not under the control of the person in charge of the aircraft and within 30 metres of any person.
Article 95 specifies that the law relates to drones equipped to undertake any form of surveillance or data acquisition.
A photographer walking in Windsor Home Park that day took photos of the quad-copter soaring hundreds of meters into the air right in the centre of one of the busiest passenger aircraft flightpaths in the world.
The drone flew south to north along the line of The Long Walk - the route Harry and Meghan took in a carriage on their wedding day last year - and hovered over Windsor Castle.
It then returned south down the The Long Walk and swerved east and headed directly to Frogmore Cottage before returning south where it came from and disappearing.
The drone flight took place between 5.02pm and 5.08pm on Saturday April 6.
The photographer, who snapped the drone on a long lens with a professional high-megapixel camera, estimated the height of the drone to be more than 300 meters (more than 980ft).
The maximum height a drone can be legally flown, even in an uncontrolled airspace, is 121 meters (300 feet).
The route taken by the drone was within very tightly controlled airspace.
It was in what is called the London Central Zone (tightly controlled airspace over the capital city) as well as being right in the middle of the Heathrow arrivals and departures flight path.
It as also within close proximity of Windsor Castle, which is a banned zone for drone flights. It is also illegal to fly zones within the confines of Windsor Great Park.
On that day, flights were coming in to Heathrow directly over Frogmore Cottage every two minutes for an eight hour period, flying as low as 1,500 feet, meaning the drone would have been only a few hundred feet from a passenger aircraft coming in to land at one of the world's busiest airports.
In recent days, the Royal helicopter has also been seen taking off from the Frogmore Estate -
something which might also be endangered by drone activity.
Meghan Markle is currently resident at Frogmore Cottage in preparation for the imminent birth of 'Baby Sussex', the couple's first child.
She has not been seen in public for a month. She was last photographed at the Ilapothecary herbal therapy clinic in Kensington Church Street in West London with her husband on the evening of Friday March 29.
The couple moved to Frogmore Cottage two days later and in recent days, they have been joined by Meghan's mother Doria.
Meghan is reported to want home birth although Royal courtiers are apparently more keen for her to give birth within the safer confines of a hospital maternity unit.
