Short answer: commercial drone filming at an event requires a pilot holding at least a P1 drone pilot licence, and flying above the guest crowd requires a P2 licence. If the venue does not sit inside a green zone, the flight also needs a permit, and that permit comes from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (SHGM). All of this is new. The Unmanned Aircraft Systems Instruction (SHT-İHA) that SHGM published on 30 July 2026 moved flight authorisation away from the weight of the aircraft and tied it to the pilot's licence level, replacing the previous instruction dated 22 February 2016. According to SHGM's own announcement, the rules touch more than 90,000 unmanned aircraft and roughly 2 million drone pilots in Turkey, and holders of existing documents and licences have until 31 July 2027 to transition. For a brand shooting an aftermovie, planning an aerial reveal at a launch or considering a drone show instead of fireworks, the practical consequence is simple: the aerial plan has to be discussed before the stage plan. Below: which licence covers what, the condition for flying over a crowd, how the venue's location decides the permit, night filming and drone shows, lead times and 2026 fees, and the clauses that belong in the contract.
Which licence do you need to fly a drone at an event?
Article 6 of the new instruction reduces the question to three lines. Amateur operations flown within visual line of sight need at least P0, commercial operations within visual line of sight need at least P1, and high risk operations such as beyond visual line of sight flights and flying over a crowd sit under P2. In event work almost everything is commercial. A sponsor video, an aftermovie, an aerial feed into the live stream, a promotional film: all of them mean P1 as a floor. The age limits are explicit too. P0 requires the pilot to be at least ten, P1 and P2 at least eighteen. A P2 applicant must additionally hold a valid class 3 medical certificate, while P0 and P1 applicants file a fitness self declaration instead of a medical report. There is one more distinction, and it is where people get caught out. Finishing the training produces a diploma licence; the document that actually permits flying is the operational licence. Article 15 says it in a single sentence: a diploma licence alone does not grant the authority to fly. When you check a pilot's paperwork, ask which one you are looking at.
What actually changed in the new SHT-İHA?
Under the old regime everything started with weight. The new instruction has not abandoned mass entirely and still classifies aircraft as M0 (500 grams up to 4 kilograms), M1 (4 to 25 kilograms), M2 (25 to 150 kilograms) and M3 (150 kilograms and above). But article 8 states that the class no longer decides the scope of an operation on its own: operational authorisation is granted on the basis of the pilot's licence level and the status of the zone. Article 9 goes further and removes the separate per flight risk assessment methodology, treating risk as embedded in the licence level. Every process moves onto one platform, the Unmanned Aircraft Tracking and Traffic Management System (İHATTYS). There is an interim period worth knowing about. Provisional article 1 says that until İHATTYS goes live and is announced, the registration, notification, permit and allocation procedures of the repealed legislation continue to apply. So as of August 2026 you still file through SHGM's existing drone system, and SHGM points to ihatakip.shgm.gov.tr for information on the new platform and system integration.
Can you fly above your guests?
Article 15 places flight over crowds and over people squarely inside the P2 licence. And P2 is not a document you use on your own: under article 19, P2 operations are carried out within a very light aircraft operator or a general aviation operator, with M0, M1 and M2 class aircraft operated under a very light aircraft operator. No such structure is required for P0 and P1, where the user and the pilot are directly responsible for their own obligations. To see why flying over a crowd sits in its own category, look at the rule it replaced: the repealed instruction required İHA0 and İHA1 class aircraft flying in free zones to stay at least 50 metres away from people and structures. Crossing above 600 people packed in front of a stage was never compatible with that distance. What happens in practice? Most aftermovie footage is shot from the edge of the crowd, along the flank, climbing as it goes. That one shot straight over the audience is a different conversation involving a higher licence level, an operator structure and a permit.
The venue's location decides the permit: green, red and orange zones
Article 12 divides Turkish airspace, for drone purposes, into green, red and orange zones plus everything outside them. A green zone is airspace where no operational permit is needed within the stated altitude and conditions. A red zone is airspace closed to drone operations by the competent authority; a permit is issued only with the approval of the institution that closed it, and where necessary the approval of the Presidency. An orange zone is airspace where a permit or a volume allocation already exists in favour of a third party, so entering it needs both the granting authority and the permit holder to accept shared use. The critical sentence: all airspace outside green zones counts as restricted, and flights there are permitted only after the approval of the civil administrative authority for that location. The old definition of red zones, still applied during the transition, hits event work directly: anything closer than 5 nautical miles (9 kilometres) from the edge of a runway, areas within a 9 kilometre radius of navigation aids and heliports, flights above 400 feet, the prohibited, restricted and danger areas published in the AIP, the surroundings of military facilities and prisons, and areas announced by NOTAM. In Istanbul, with two airports and their radii, a good number of hotels and congress centres fall inside that description. Check the venue coordinates on the map during the site visit, before an aerial plan goes into the proposal.
What does a night shoot or a drone show require?
Most corporate events start in the evening, which makes the night rule matter. The old instruction restricted İHA0 and İHA1 class aircraft to flights between sunrise and sunset with at least 2 kilometres of visibility. The new instruction allows night operations under a P1 licence with suitable equipment, provided the aircraft remains adequately visible, and SHGM may require a drone observer to be present. Brands weighing a drone show against fireworks face two separate items. First, if the show takes place above the guests, that is flight over a crowd and it falls under P2. Second, the technical requirement: article 23 brings the command software that directs multiple unmanned aircraft into the scope of software certification and requires the compliance software module to be embedded in that command software. So the conversation around a swarm show is not about pyrotechnician certificates; it is about pilot licences, operator structure, airspace permission and software certification. Ask the show contractor for documentation on all four.
How early do you apply, and what does it cost in 2026?
The procedure that applies until İHATTYS goes live is set out in SHGM's announcement on drone flight permit applications. Flights below 400 feet with İHA0 and İHA1 class aircraft in permit zones require an application 5 working days in advance; red zones and flights above 400 feet require 10 working days; İHA2 and İHA3 class aircraft require 10 working days for all airspace; foreign operators apply 20 working days ahead through diplomatic channels. The file includes the FR.19 form, the third party liability insurance policy, the pilot's credentials and the payment receipt. Incomplete or incorrectly completed applications are not processed. The fees are smaller than most people assume. SHGM's 2026 service tariff lists a commercial drone flight permit for Turkish registered aircraft at 515 TL (per day, per aircraft), the same permit for foreign registered aircraft at 4,720 TL, the annual commercial drone flight permit for companies holding a Light Drone Operator certificate at 16,025 TL (one year, one aircraft), drone e-registration at 125 TL for İHA0 and İHA1 and 250 TL for İHA2 and İHA3, and a drone pilot licence at 2,385 TL on first issue. The tariff was published under the old class names and is expected to be updated for the new licence structure; article 13 foresees future pricing of allocated airspace volumes on a cubic metre day unit basis. The real budget line is not the fee, it is the crew and the calendar.
Insurance, data protection and the contract: an agency checklist
Track insurance as its own line item. Article 10 of the repealed instruction required third party liability insurance for drones over 25 kilograms and for any drone used commercially regardless of weight, and prohibited flying without it; permit files still ask for that policy. Look at the document, confirm the dates cover the event day and that the aircraft details match. Personal data sits inside the regulation as well: the new instruction lists Law 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data among its legal bases. If guests' faces enter the frame, the notice in your registration flow and the privacy notice are your responsibility. On enforcement, article 25 refers to Law 2920 and the SHY-İPC administrative fines regulation; a pilot who breaks the rules can have their licence suspended from one month to two years depending on the degree of fault, and a repeat of the same breach within three years of the suspension ending brings cancellation plus a five year bar on reissue. Put three clauses in the contract: who files the permit application, which shooting plan takes over if the permit does not come through, and how the fee works if the flight is cancelled.
The drone plan for event day
One exemption relieves a lot of projects: under article 2, drone operations conducted exclusively indoors fall outside the scope of the instruction. A flight inside the ballroom does not enter this permit regime, though venue approval, insurance and the safety distance between guests and the aircraft remain yours to manage. The toy class will not solve it either: the Simple Drone definition covers aircraft that by design cannot leave a flight envelope of 10 metres in radius and 20 metres in height. That same envelope comes back as a warning, because article 23 requires the geofencing function to keep the aircraft inside this default cylinder until the user registration is verified through İHATTYS. An unregistered aircraft does not get off the ground on site. Add these to the run sheet: keep the take off and landing point away from guest circulation, assign an observer, write the wind and precipitation thresholds into the production meeting notes, calculate spare batteries against the shot list, and keep a printed copy of the permit on site. Then a plan B: storyboard the same angle with a camera crane or a locked off camera at a high position, for the day the permit does not arrive or the weather turns. Tales Event is based in Istanbul and runs stage, sound, lighting, LED screen and video production with a single team for dealer meetings, launches, openings, gala nights and graduation ceremonies across Turkey; on jobs that need aerial coverage we open the permit calendar during the site visit. Send us the event date, the venue coordinates, the guest count and whether you want a shot over the crowd, and we will work out which licence and permit the plan needs.
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