C0 drones green flashing light at night: UK CAA update

C0/UK1 drones, including the DJI Mini 5 Pro, do not require an active green flashing light to stay compliant when flying at night, the UK Civil Aviation Authority has said.

It follows weeks of concern from pilots of these sub-250g platforms, sparked after updates to drone laws.

The new rules — that came into effect at the start of 2026 — say that a drone must have a green flashing light turned on when conducting Open Category night flights.

However, this caused a potential headache for users of aircraft such as the Mini 5 Pro — who faced a squeeze on their operational freedom.

The Mini 5 Pro is equipped with green LEDs, but these currently switch off when the drone is recording (a future firmware update may solve this). Yet fitting a third-party light to the aircraft would nullify its C0 class mark, tip it over the 250g threshold, and push pilots from the A1 subcategory (flights over people) to the A3 subcategory (flights far from people).

But now, a UK CAA policy review has resulted in an important decision: These lightweight platforms can be flown at night, without requiring a light to be on at all times.

What has the UK CAA said about the green flashing light?

The CAA Policy Review Decision — following discussions between the watchdog and heliguy™ partner Geeksvana — states: 'The DJI Mini 5 Pro is not rendered non-compliant for night operations solely because the green flashing light switches off during video recording.

"The requirement to display a green flashing light at night is an operational requirement for Open Category night flights.

'The associated guidance in GM1 UAS.OPEN.060(2) (g) explains how different aircraft types may meet this requirement in practice. However, this GM is guidance only and does not introduce new product design obligations beyond those defined in 945.

'In this context, a C0 aircraft that is fitted with a green flashing light remains compliant, even if the behaviour of that light varies in certain operating modes (for example, during video recording).

'There is currently no regulatory requirement specifying brightness, range, flash cycle etc of the green light for C0/UK0 aircraft, nor is there a basis to withdraw recognition of a valid class mark on that ground alone.'

This announcement is sure to be welcomed by the community.

It is important to keep your drone VLOS, so this may limit distances when flying with the lights off at night. It is also not a free-for-all for flying without lights, so operators should keep a light on where possible.