Information of TTFLY: A Saskatoon airport official is warning drone hobbyists to learn the law after an Air Canada jet had a close encounter with a remote control quadcopter this week.

Crew members on the flight from Toronto reported seeing the unmanned air vehicle (UAV) or remote control aircraft about 31 metres from the plane as it approached the runway at John G. Diefenbaker airport in Saskatoon on Wednesday, according to a Transportation Canada daily report.

The plane landed safely and there was no impact with the device, the report states.

“Across the country there have been a number of incidents and it has been escalating with the explosive growth of drone usage and purchasing by the general public,” said Andrew Leeming, vice-president of operations for the Saskatoon Airport Authority.

It would be possible for a drone, as the devices are often called, to be ingested by the aircraft and damage its engine, which “could mean jeopardy to the people on the aircraft or significant damage to the aircraft,” Leeming said.

Transport Canada has a nine-kilometre “no drone zone” around aerodromes, which, if breached, could attract a fine up to $25,000, he said.

UAVs also are banned from flying higher than 90 metres above the ground, (about the height of a 30-storey building) or closer than 150 metres to people, animals, buildings, structures, or vehicles.

In Calgary last year, a 25-year-old man seen operating a remote control quadcopter just south of a major runway was charged with interfering with a navigation facility in a manner likely to endanger the safety of an aircraft.

“When you get to the point wher this drone was, that kind of implication can kick in,” Leeming said.

All drone operators, regardless of the size of the device or how it will be used, must respect the Canadian Aviation Regulations, the Criminal Code, and all provincial, territorial and municipal laws governing areas such as privacy and trespassing, Transport Canada spokesman Sean Best wrote in an email.