Temporary no-fly zone over Laois village due to ‘civilian rocket launch’
A small village in Co Laois is set to be temporarily declared a no-fly zone as a rocket is due to be launched.
The Irish Aviation Authority has filed a temporary restriction on the flying of unauthorised aircraft for two days in the vicinity of Emo, in Co Laois.
This restriction on the flying of aircrafts, drones and rockets in Emo has been put in place to facilitate a rocket launch by the European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO) in Ireland.
The launch has been described by Irish Aviation Authority as a “planned small civilian rocket launch”.
The Temporary Restricted Area (TRA) will be in effect from 9am to 6pm Universal Time or from 10am until 7pm Irish Time on Thursday May 2 and Friday May 3.
Unmanned Aircraft Systems, including rockets, are not permitted to operate within the TRA without written permission from the Flight Operations Department of the Irish Aviation Authority.
An Unmanned Aircraft System operated in breach of TRA restrictions may be seized by Gardaí as evidence for potential prosecution.
However, state aircraft, aircraft of the Irish Coastguard Service and HEMS Operators employed on an operational mission are exempt from the restriction.
The Irish Aviation Authority confirmed that the lateral limits of the TRA are a circle radius of 1NM centred on 53° 06′ 33.6996” N, 007° 11′ 43.0728” W, while the vertical limits are SFC to 1500 feet AMSL.
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