Estonia's PPA bans drone flying in Ida-Viru County border zone

The Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) has prohibited hobby pilots from flying drones in the border zone of Ida-Viru County. The ban is due to GPS signal interference originating from Russia, which could cause drones flying near the border to crash, potentially harming people or property.
The five-kilometer-wide border zone runs along the Narva River from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Peipus. Previously, flying drones in the border zone required coordination with the PPA, but as of Friday, the East Prefecture will no longer issue approvals for hobby pilots, according to the "Aktuaalne kaamera" news program.
The ban will remain in effect until the situation improves. According to the Police and Border Guard Board, GPS signal interference in border areas has increased over the past year, primarily due to countermeasures by Russia.
"At the moment, interference from the Russian Federation is quite strong, mainly to protect their infrastructure from drone attacks originating from Ukraine. I can confirm that incidents have occurred. Hobby pilots and others have experienced situations where the connection between the drone and the controller is lost. The drone can then crash into someone, causing injury or damage property," said Eerik Purgel, head of the Border Guard Bureau of the East Prefecture.
"We made the decision not to approve flights as long as signal interference continues in areas such as Narva and Narva-Jõesuu. These are densely populated areas, and we cannot allow a drone to fall on someone," he added.
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Editor: Aleksander Krjukov, Marcus Turovski