The Straits Times corrects report on Singapore drone compliance after overstating percentage without digital licence plates

The Straits Times has corrected its October 28 article, “17,000 unmanned aircraft may still lack digital licence plates, which are mandatory from Dec 1,” after overstating the proportion of drones in Singapore not yet equipped with Broadcast Remote Identification (B-RID) modules.

The original version of the report claimed that “more than 65 per cent” of registered unmanned aircraft (UA) did not have digital licence plates at the point of registration. The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) later clarified that the correct figure was 17,300 out of 27,000 registered aircraft, or roughly 64 per cent — a difference small in absolute terms but significant enough to prompt a formal correction.

In its updated version, The Straits Times noted:

“An earlier version of this story misstated that more than 65 per cent of registered unmanned aircraft in Singapore did not have a digital licence plate at the point of their registration. This has been corrected.”

The correction matters because precision in regulatory reporting is vital when compliance rates are tied to new safety laws. Overstating the figure implied a higher rate of non-compliance ahead of Singapore’s December 1 deadline, when all unmanned aircraft weighing over 250g must carry a digital licence plate capable of transmitting the operator’s location and aircraft identification data.

The original article also highlighted that those failing to comply risk fines of up to S$10,000, jail terms of up to six months, or both, and that CAAS had issued 6,300 free B-RID modules earlier in the year.

While the factual core of the piece — the coming enforcement of the B-RID mandate — remained accurate, the misstatement inflated the sense of non-compliance by suggesting that nearly two-thirds of drone operators had ignored the law, rather than being in the process of upgrading or exempt.