Two tourists arrested for flying drone above Vatican

If there’s one place you shouldn’t be flying drones without permission, it’s over the Vatican.

Two Israeli tourists learned this the hard way when local police officers arrested them for flying a drone over Pope Francis’ residence to capture vacation photos of St. Peter’s Square and the Tiber River. This could very well be a significant step in how authorities are fighting illegal drones.

According to the Daily Mail, two 33-year-old men were apprehended by police when the officers spotted a drone while conducting an illegal street vendor crackdown.

According to reports, the men were discovered due to the operator having the remote control in his hand while standing on a bridge near where the drone was seen flying. In what appears to be a deterrent for any future drone operators, Rome Police’s official Twitter account shared an image of the apprehended drone in flight above the Tiber River.

Allarme drone sul Vaticano, Vigili fermano due stranieri https://t.co/lSvaJ2JynB pic.twitter.com/fWg8P7QTNG

— PoliziaRomaCapitale (@PLRomaCapitale) December 28, 2015

As noted by The Local, police have been extra careful since the start of Jubilee earlier this month. A city-wide ban has been put in place in hopes of deterring any airborne attacks—a ban that’s expected to stay in place until November 2016.

The men are expected to face charges for violating protected airspace.

[via Daily Mail]

Image credits: Vatican City by screaming_monkey used under CC BY-SA 2.0