The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) is to present draft amendments regulating the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for legislative review next week, a Cabinet official said on Wednesday.
The draft amendments to the Civil Aviation Act (民用航空法) would also cover aerial photography, airspace and equipment after relevant rules are finalized this week, the official said.
The new measures are to serve as a regulatory framework and come in response to the rising number of UAVs and remote-controlled camera drones appearing in the skies over Taiwan. Th agency is imposing stricter regulations on camera drones weighing 15kg or more, including mandatory certification for the vehicle and operator.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Under the proposed rules, the CAA will have authority over drones weighing 15kg and above, while local governments will have jurisdiction over those that weigh less than 15kg, the official said.
The amendments are to take effect next year if they are approved by the Legislative Yuan.
The government is revising the law to tighten drone regulations following a number of crashes that raised security concerns, the official said.
Given that Taiwan is small in area, but densely populated, the regulations will be more stringent than similar laws in the US and the EU, which categorize remote drones as those weighing 25kg and above, the official said.
According to CAA rules, drones must not be flown at an altitude of more than 121.92m and are prohibited from being used to take aerial photographs of important facilities such as the Presidential Office Building and the now-shuttered Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
RSS