Sunday 08 / February / 2026
Muscat: The State Council Bureau on Tuesday discussed the proposal of the Working Group tasked with studying the regulations on small drones.
The eighth meeting of the bureau, chaired by Dr. Yahya bin Mahfoudh Al Mantheri, Chairman of the Bureau, held in the presence of bureau members and Secretary General of the Council, hosted Sayyid Dr. Said Sultan Hamood Al Busaidi, Head of the Working Committee, and Dr. Issa bin Said Sulaiman Al Kiyumi, Rapporteur of the Committee.
At the outset of the meeting, the State Council Chairman welcomed the efforts of the Working Group in preparing the proposal.
Al Busaidi explained that the proposal was aimed at creating a comprehensive legal mechanism to regulate the import, trade, circulation and use of small drones.
It also involves establishing controls to ensure that their usage conforms with social, economic and technical provisions of public safety rules and requirements of the airspace in the Sultanate.
It is crucial that users do not violate the confidentiality of protected sites, maintain privacy of individuals, as well as ensure that the usage of these planes leaves legitimate areas of ambulance services, rescue, imaging and other areas unhindered. It was justified by the proposal that there were no legislations governing the use of such aircraft and that there were no existing references in this regard, as well as for permits for personal use.
Additionally, there is an absence of governmental or private agencies to accommodate amateur interests and there is a shortage of specific areas exclusively to practice it as a hobby.
Al Kiyumi highlighted the importance of promulgating a law regulating the use of this type of aircraft, and establishing controls and regulations to operate it, in order to benefit from this technique in a regulated manner, providing a safe environment for civilian passenger aircraft.
The various types of remote-controlled aircraft, their uses and risks posed in the Sultanate were reviewed.
In preparing the report, the group had hosted a number of stakeholders from the General Civil Aviation Authority and some amateurs and had monitored several observations and proposals that would enrich the proposal.
Following discussions, the bureau drew up a proposal for the council to find a law that would pave a legalised way to import, manufacture and use this type of aircraft.
The bureau was briefed about the Annual Report of the Secretariat for the fiscal year 2017 and a report on the follow-up to the implementation of the decisions taken at the sixth and seventh meetings of the third session of the sixth period.
It also noted the report on the follow-up to the activities of the committees, together with the evaluation of the fifth and sixth regular sessions of the third annual session of the sixth period.
