aircraft.
“The signal we’re sending today is that when you’re in the national airspace, it’s a very serious matter,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said during a Monday announcement.
The registration is an attempt to track rogue drones the government said are increasingly posing a threat to aviation safety.
The Washington Post reports that the decision to compel drone owners to register their aircraft represents a policy shift by the President Barack Obama’s administration and a tacit admission by the Federal Aviation Administration that it has been unable to safely integrate the popular remote-controlled drones and quad copters into the national airspace.
U.S. officials say they still need to sort out the basic details of the registration system — which they hope to set up within two months — but concluded that they had to take swift action to cope with a surge in sales of inexpensive, simple-to-fly drones they said are interfering with regular air traffic. American hobbyists are projected to buy about 700,000 drones this year, a 63 percent increase from 2014.
Pilots of passenger planes and other aircraft are reporting more than 100 sightings or close calls with drones a month, according to the FAA. Such incidents were almost unheard of prior to last year, but have escalated quickly amid the boom in the consumer drone market.
Under FAA guidelines, drone owners are not supposed fly their aircraft above 400 feet or within five miles of an airport without permission. But the rules are widely flouted, and officials have been largely powerless to find offenders.
Requiring drones to be registered will be of limited use for investigators unless the remote-controlled aircraft crash and a registration number can be found. Most drones are too small to appear on radar and do not carry transponders to broadcast their locations. Regulators hope that forcing owners to register their drones with the government will at least make them think twice about their responsibility to fly safely and the possibility that they could be held accountable for an accident.
As officials envision the system, new drone owners would have to register their purchases online and confirm that they have familiarized themselves with basic guidelines for where drones can fly and under what conditions.
money grab thanks to the knuckleheads flying them unsafe…..probably insurance for them is next
In Alaska, there are many FAA registered air strips all over. Not sure how many count as airports for the purposes of this regulation.
The 5 mile radius effectively puts all of Fairbanks and North Pole off limits, even though the 400 ft ceiling on drone operation clearly only affects air traffic just a short distance from our three airports (one civilian, two military).
The proposed regulations are the result of abuse of sensible operation and risky behavior by drone users. It's too bad that folks bring about restrictions by using poor judgment.
Luke, this is FAA not FRA. Seriously though, these were incredibly annoying when I was chasing the 611. Their buzzing took away from the experience listening to the 611 barking up the Christiansburg Grade.
Registering drones is long overdue, as is some kind of mandatory training for the safe use of drones. Something like a driver's license for drones.
They will try and regulate this but not talk about PTC wow.
One problem seen here in California, and probably elsewhere, is people operating drones to get pictures of nearby forest, grass and other wild fires. Because of a fear of collision, the water dumping helicopters and fixed-wing airplanes are not operated when drones are observed. This has delayed the operation of these essential tools in combating the fires and the delay has allowed the fires to spread quicker than in earlier years.
The way i see it, if you operate a drone responsibly by abiding by the rules (Don't go over 400 ft, can't fly within 5 miles of airport) and making sure you don't cause injury or damage, you have nothing to worry about if you register your drone.
Mr. Hedrick nails it!
Too much hype about private drones.
Harley's are loud and annoying. People register cars and have licenses and yet are still dangerous. Criminals don't care what laws are made. Immature people will not apply anything learned from mandatory training.
The responsible person will just end up paying more and having less enjoyment.
I knew this was going to happen. Presumably there'll be a registration fee, so there goes more money into the government coffers.
I still place most, if not all the blame on the irresponsible.