Police have launched a probe into the usage of a quadcopter by a Lower Parel-based outlet of a pizza chain in Mumbai, which has now become an internet sensation. The eatery created its own slice of history on May 11 when it successfully test-delivered a 13-inch Margherita from its Lower Parel outlet to a highrise in Worli, 1.5-km away, in 10 minutes using a remote-controlled, GPS-enabled quadcopter.
The test-drive was filmed and the recordings were released on a few social networking sites, even as cops said they will verify with the Air Traffic Controller whether the eatery had informed it about the experiment.
Drones are allowed to fly only at an altitude not exceeding 400 ft, and are barred from flying over security establishments. The eatery officials said it was just an experiment and that they had operated the drone within the ambit of the law.
The N M Joshi Marg Police, which has launched the probe, however, said that it came to know of the test-drive only after reading about it in newspapers.
“Aerospace is an extremely sensitive matter and flying an object requires permissions from multiple authorities. We have asked the Air Traffic Controller for a report, and also the eatery to show the permissions they needed to obtain,” Additional Commissioner of Police Madhukar Pande (central region), in whose jurisdiction the drone was flown, said. “After studying all the aspects, we will decide the future course of action,” Pande said.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) top brass said the eatery hadn’t sought permissions to conduct the test-drive. A K Sharma, the AAI regional director, said: “As far as I know, no such permission was sought by the eatery. We came to know about the experiment through news reports. We need to check the exact path of the drone to determine whether rules had been flouted.”
The police sources said prima facie, the drone flew at around 250 ft and covered the distance of 1.5 km inside 10 minutes. “The test-drive was recorded by an expert and posted on social networking sites. It is an obvious attempt at creating hype,” a senior police officer said.
The eatery’s chief executive, Mikhel Rajani, was quoted as saying that it was “only a test-flight but its results confirmed that drones could be used routinely in a few years”.
Giving details of the experiment, Rajani was quoted as saying that a four-rotor drone was used in the testdrive and an auto engineer helped with making the flight possible. The person who received the pizza was a friend of Rajani, so it was technically not a sale.
THE TEST-DRIVE
♦ An unmanned, GPS-enabled drone took off on May 11 from the eatery’s Lower Parel outlet with a 13-inch Margherita pizza.
♦ The drone reached its destination, a highrise in Worli 1.5-km away, in 10 minutes.
♦ The drone dropped the pizza on the 21st floor rooftop. The person who received the pizza was a friend of Rajani, so it was technically not a sale.
♦ Drones are allowed to fly only at an altitude not exceeding 400 ft, and are barred from flying over security establishments. The eatery officials said it was just an experiment and that they had operated the drone within the ambit of the law.
♦ The N M Joshi Marg police, however, said that it came to know of the test-drive through the media.