DronesFAA caught between commercial pressures, safety concerns in regulating drone use

Law enforcement agencies in major U.S. cities have expressed concerns about the possible use of drones by terrorists to launch bombs against key U.S. targets, including shopping malls, stadiums, and even banks. “We look at it as something that could be a terrorist’s tool,” New York Police Department (NYPD) Deputy Chief Salvatore DiPace told CBS News in October. DiPace is also concerned that terrorists, domestic or foreign could use drones to carry out an air assault using chemical weapons. “We’ve seen some video where the drone was flying at different targets along the route and very accurately hitting the targets with the paintball,” he said.

In some cases, drones have been intentionally or unintentionally flown into the airspace of NYPD helicopters. Earlier this summer, a drone, about 800 feet off the ground flew within fifty feet of an NYPD helicopter piloted by Officer Daryl Maudsley and Sgt. Antonio Hernandez. “We’re flying in the dark; we have night-vision goggles on, we’re trying to get a job done and then the next thing you know we see this drone come up to our altitude,” Hernandez said. Without advanced warning, law enforcement officers may be unaware of what private drones are capable of. “You don’t know what the intentions are — hostile, recreational; there’s a lot of different ways you can go with that,” Maudsley said.

About twenty-five times a month nationwide, pilots report seeing drones or model planes operating near their aircraft, according to a recent Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report. “While many of these sightings are from general aviation or helicopter pilots, airline crews have also reported them,” the statement read. “The reports range from unmanned aircraft sightings without impact to other pilots and aircraft, to on a few occasions, pilots altering course to avoid an unmanned aircraft.” Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) in a recent letter to FAA administrator Michael P. Huerta, asked the agency to aggressively confront the challenges drones pose to the safety of U.S. airspace. “It is clear that we have a serious potential safety problem which could cause a serious threat to life,” she wrote. “Yet very few of these incidents resulted in FAA enforcement actions, according to reports, even though the drones’ operations appear to have been plainly illegal.”

Supporters of the commercial and private use of drones charge the FAA for failing to set concrete rules regarding drone operations in U.S. airspace. “The recent FAA data about safety risks is not a reflection of what a well-regulated commercial market will look like after appropriate rules are in place,” said Michael E. Drobac, executive director of the Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Coalition, which promotes the safe commercial use of drones. “It is a reflection of how UAV technology development and consumer and commercial demand for UAVs is outpacing regulation, creating an even more urgent need for clarity from the FAA.” The FAA is expected to propose safety rules for commercial and private drone use by the end of this year. Regulations may include requiring commercial drone operators to get a license, only fly drones as far as the operator can see them, and to only operate drones in daytime. John Villasenor, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says the FAA is in a tough situation. “If they come out with rules that are not protective enough and then there’s some sort of an accident then they will be criticized for not having been more careful with this technology,” he says. “On the other hand, if they come out with rules that are viewed as overly restrictive in the name of safety then they are going to be criticized as impeding the growth of the industry, so it’s a very difficult balancing act that they have to navigate.”