The Seven Kingdoms Are Officially a No-Fly Zone: ‘Game of Thrones’ Bans Spy Drones

(Source: The Daily Beast)  

Top-secret filming on the HBO fantasy epic has been protected by a no-fly zone over the set in Northern Ireland.

If you thought the main airborne threat in Game of Thrones came from Daenerys Targaryen’s troublesome dragons, think again.

Drones are the No. 1 aerial menace—on set, at least­. The production company behind the swashbuckling HBO fantasy epic has issued a strict ban on spy craft flying above the principal filming location in Northern Ireland.

Michael Macmillan, 58, the former Middle East bureau chief for the BBC who now runs a licensed drone-based aerial photography studio in Belfast, told The Daily Beast there was a proliferation of cheap drones equipped with Go-Pro cameras. He said freelance photographers might be trying to sneak plot-spoiling snaps.

“They are obviously not concerned about drones used by professional videographers like us, but unlicensed operators flying in lower-grade aircraft which can be used as a spycam,” Macmillan said. “They don’t want random shots being taken as the filming continues. There are also issues around invasion of privacy as far as the actors concerned.”

Macmillan said there were also risks of injury to cast and crew in the event of a crash on the set.

“In the wrong hands, a drone is an extremely dangerous object,” he said.

Signs erected by a security company on the fence of the filming studios in Titanic Quarter, East Belfast, specify that the area is a “no-fly zone” for the crafts and warn of prosecution for invading the airspace above the studios without permission from the Civil Aviation Authority.

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