Lake Louise drone flight sees operator fined $2K

A stock photo of Lake Louise. (Unsplash/K. K.)

Parks Canada is using an incident from last year that resulted in a hefty fine to remind people not to use a drone in national parks.

Officials say park wardens patrolling Banff National Park on Jan. 17, 2025, were alerted to a drone in the Lake Louise area.

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“The reporting party advised the drone pilot that the activity was prohibited in the national park—they were ultimately ignored, despite ‘no drone’ signage located nearby,” said Parks Canada in a social media post.

Park wardens located the drone operator and watched him land the drone along the lakeshore.

They seized the drone, controller and storage card.

Flight path overlapped with avalanche helicopter

Parks Canada says avalanche control operations were being conducted with a helicopter within 30 minutes of the drone being illegally flown.

“Park wardens obtained a search warrant to examine the microSD card. Upon reviewing the footage and GPS data, park wardens confirmed the drone flight path geographically overlapped with the helicopter,” Parks Canada said.unsplash

Drone operator saw big penalty

Parks Canada says the drone operator had not registered the drone with Transport Canada, nor did they have the required Transport Canada licenses.

Officials say the drone was also flown “beyond the visual line of sight, hindering the pilot from knowing the drone’s position and movement relative to other aircraft, wildlife and visitors.”

The drone operator was given a $2,000 penalty after pleading guilty to flying a drone in a national park.