When a drone flew into the Great American Tower August 2015, he couldn’t believe it. It is a misdemeanor to interfere with firefighting efforts, which is punishable by a $1,000 fine.
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“We educate them the best we can”.
But the sources acknowledged that efforts to combat rogue drones have gained new urgency due to the sharp rise in drone use and a series of alarming incidents.
The department said that FAA is conducting research to understand the environmental impacts of drone integration, the role of such unmanned vehicles in complying with federal law and the how noise standards apply to them. The current landscape has drone regulations being proffered at the local, state and federal levels, which could cause serious regulatory confusion and may lead to one of the higher authorities stepping in to assert control over the entire field of drone regulations. His proposed legislation, he told reporters, would allow drones to be used for both purposes without imposing a ban on the aircraft.
On a related issue, U.S. Sen.
Schumer says he will push to require so-called geo-fencing – technology that uses Global Positioning System tracking to bar the drones from entering restricted space like no-fly zones around airports.
The Federal Aviation Administration said last week it will crack down on unsafe operators of small drones after the number of pilot sightings near airport from 238 in 2014 to more than 650 so far this year.
The New York lawmaker’s proposal follows a rash of reports about the unmanned aircraft appearing near airports.
“It’s frightening”, he said in a telephone interview. The FAA and the AMA have launched a “Know Before You Fly” campaign to educate the public about drones.
He has advocated for Geo-fencing or other similar technology in the past, but said legislation is the only way to accelerate the process.
This technology works and will effectively “fence off” drones from sensitive areas like airports. He wants the implementation to happen “right away”.
Safety and security concerns have prompted bipartisan discussions in Congress about options that include federal support for jamming drone systems and other potential technology solutions.
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“When it comes to drones in the vicinity of commercial flights carrying hundreds of passengers at a time, the FAA has been playing Whac-A-Mole across the skies, and that’s certainly not good enough”, he said Wednesday.
