Flying over and near people

You must not fly a drone closer than 30 m to people who are not essential to its control and navigation. This distance is measured from the point on the ground directly below the drone, regardless of its height. You must never fly over a person.

People such as actors, athletes, or members of the public you are filming are not essential to the control and navigation of the drone.

Flying a drone in a location where it could pose an unreasonable risk to third parties or their property is also not allowed. In some situations, you may need to increase the distance to maintain safety.

In some cases, exceptions to these rules may apply.

Operations between 30 m and 15 m of a person (no CASA approval required)

You are permitted to operate an RPA closer than 30 m of another person, but no closer than 15 m, provided that you have a remotely piloted aircraft operator's certificate (ReOC) and:

  • the drone weighs less than 150 kg
  • the drone is not flown closer than 15 m from the person
  • consent is provided by the person.

You must apply for CASA approval outside of these conditions.

Risk assessment

You must also make sure the drone does not create a hazard to people, property or aircraft. You should:

  • recognise and minimise any safety risks
  • do a risk assessment and apply mitigators that consider the capabilities and limitations of the drone, including:
    • position holding
    • obstacle avoidance
    • failsafe systems.

Before flying

Before flying closer than 30 m of people, you must also:

  • have documented practices and procedures
  • give relevant instruction to the operating crew.

For tips on updating your operations manual to fly closer than 30 m to another person, see our RPAS sample operations manual.

Operations less than 30 m from a person (CASA approval required)

To operate within 30 m of a person without consent, or closer than 15 m to a person with consent, you must get a CASA:

  • approval to fly near people
  • exemption to fly in a populous area, in some cases.

To apply, you must:

Follow these steps to apply:

  1. Complete the application form

    Before you apply you must have a remotely piloted aircraft operator’s certificate (ReOC).

    Download and complete the relevant sections of the following form:

    Make sure you save it to your device.

  2. Complete or update your supporting documentation

    Attach your:

    • risk assessments
    • supporting documents.
  3. Submit your application, supporting documentation and pay the fee

    Submit your application and supporting documents to the email listed on the form.

    We will check that you have completed the relevant questions and provided all required documents. We will notify you if your application is incomplete.

    We will send you an estimate of the application fee, valid for 30 days. Additional fees may apply if an RPAS inspector needs to travel for an onsite assessment.

    To proceed, you must:

    • pay the application fee
    • submit any other supporting documents.

    If you choose not to proceed, please notify us via email.

  4. Assessment of your application

    Once we receive your payment and all supporting documents, we will review your documentation and notify you if:

    • we have any feedback
    • you require an onsite assessment.

    If you don't respond within 30 days, we may close your request. We'll notify you if this happens.

  5. Issuing your approval

    After assessing your application, we'll notify you of the outcome.

    If we approve your application, you will receive an instrument. It will include the conditions of operation.

Temporary management instruction

We have published a Temporary management instruction (TMI) to show how we assess applications to fly a drone closer than 30 m of people:

RPAS operations that do not meet the requirements in the TMI should enquire or apply for Advanced operations.

Last updated:
11 Oct 2024
Online version available at: https://www.casa.gov.au//drones/flight-authorisations/flying-over-and-near-people
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