Another pilot soon came within the same distance of a second drone, forcing the grounding of four firefighting aircraft for 2½ hours.
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As there has been an increase in reports about drones flying close to airports, Michael P. Huerta, FAA chief, tells the Post that he’s “definitely getting much more concerned about it”.
Reports began surfacing last year of runaway drones interfering with air traffic and crashing into buildings. Ted Gaines, R- El Dorado, would “grant immunity to our first responders if they take a drone down”, Gatto said. “A midair collision with a drone can cause a helicopter or aircraft to crash”. This sort of autonomous operation may not be in line with FAA rules, however; the agency’s letter to Amazon included the requirement that the drone may never leave the operator’s line of sight.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin in late July, saying that since 2012 there have been 500 recorded incidents in which drones were spotted near “sensitive sites and critical installations”, including military bases and nuclear plants.
The FAA is drafting separate regulations for small commercial drones.
The FAA has put a temporary flight restriction around wildfires.
Learning how futuristic drones might communicate, navigate and operate could aid similar technologies also being developed at Google’s secretive X Lab, now a part of the new Alphabet holdings.
In other cases, however, authorities have been more sympathetic toward drone haters.
“The intelligence gathering stopped, and now our focus was on the drone”, said McCabe.
So, what if a drone gets in the way of a fire or an airplane can it be shot out of the sky? “This is maddening and I can’t believe that hobby drones are risking people’s lives to get videos on YouTube”. But those rules are often disregarded, and a law was passed in 2012 preventing the FAA from imposing more rules on those using drones for recreational purposes.
Huerta, the FAA chief, said Monday that the recent spate of risky incidents prompted the agency to revisit its approach and that it will adopt “more stringent enforcement” measures in cooperation with state and local officials.
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The FAA has partnered with industry associations to launch the Know before you Fly Campaign that is aimed at educating drone hobbyists. The measure, which will be considered at the council’s Tuesday meeting, “basically ensures that you can not use a drone during emergency situations and one can not be flown within five miles of an airport within the city”, he said. The papers also show Google’s safety plan if they were to lose one of its drones.
