This week, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta announced the creation of a task force to develop recommendations for a registration process for drones.
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Wynne said that proposed FAA rule would require commercial drone operators to register with the agency.
“This year pilots have reported seeing unmanned aircraft twice as frequently as they did in 2014”, he told reporters in explaining the decision.
Currently, there are rules that people have to follow in North Carolina.
The DoT noted that the requirement for registration will not be all-inclusive.
Tim Nelson of Pro Fly Aerial Imaging has been flying drones commercially for about six months. He said he has no problem registering his own drones.
Every day, the FAA receives reports of potentially unsafe drone operations.
Drone operators will be hit with “penalties” if they fail to register their drones, Foxx said, although it’s not clear what those penalties will be. Drones that can’t fly higher than a few hundred feet are less likely to bring down a helicopter, though flying them near an airport is of course, still prohibited. Drone industry representatives welcomed the notion of having a mechanism to promote accountability, but questioned whether a new registry could be in place in such a short timeframe and said the government’s authority to compel participation remained unclear.
“The registration will reinforce the need for unmanned aircraft users, including consumers and hobbyists, to operate their drones safely”, Foxx said.
The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems global estimates that agriculture will account for as much as 80 percent of all commercial UAS use. The deadline to return a report on these issues to FAA is November 20.
The U.S. government has also announced a task force to determine which drones should be exempt from the new rules due to low safety risk – that’s expected to include those classed as toys.
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Not only will a registry make it easier for law enforcement to hunt down irresponsible drone owners, it will also help the FAA teach operators about existing regulations.
