Chinese drone maker DJI is offering up to one million yuan (\u00a3112,000) for information about drones that disrupted scores of flights at a Chinese airport.<\/p>\n
On four days this month – 14, 17, 18 and 21 – drones were blamed<\/a> for stranding thousands of passengers at Chengdu Shuangliu International.<\/p>\n Chinese reports said they caused 60 flight interruptions on 21 April alone.<\/p>\n One expert said it showed how difficult it is to combat unsafe drone flights.<\/p>\n Initially, it was reported that a reward of 10,000 yuan (\u00a31,124) had been offered by the local public security bureau for information about unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flown near to the transport hub.<\/p>\n However, DJI is now proposing a much bigger bounty.<\/p>\n In a press release in Chinese, the firm said that flying drones so close to an airport was a serious threat to public safety – and also damaged the UAV industry’s image.<\/p>\n Members of the public have until 31 December to make a report to local authorities.<\/p>\n The bounty was a sign that the firm was taking the potential impact on its reputation seriously, suggested Prof David Dunn at the University of Birmingham.<\/p>\n “Clearly they’re concerned about their brand image, given how much they dominate the drone market,” he told the BBC.<\/p>\n Prof Dunn pointed out that using on-board software to restrict where drones can fly – known as geofencing, which DJI uses in its drones – was not always successful.<\/p>\n “There seems to be an inability to deal with the potential drone threat to air traffic – other than through extraordinary measures like this reward,” he said.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"