FAA, Drones Clash on Rules for Unmanned Aircraft (FAA SWAT teams to enforce drone law soon?)

Wall Street Journal ^ | May 11, 2014 | Jack Nicas and

[Seizethecarp]

The FAA requires every non-recreational drone user in the U.S. to seek its approval. So far, the FAA has authorized only two commercial drones, both in Alaska.

Separately, the agency has fined two drone pilots, both for alleged reckless flying. In March, an administrative law judge overturned the first fine—a $10,000 penalty—ruling that the drone policy was a safety guideline and the agency had no legal authority to enforce it. The FAA is appealing.

"Fewer and fewer people seem deterred by threats," said one federal official. "Nobody is asking the FAA how to proceed, so it's turned into a modern version of the Wild West, where some people think anything is OK."

Some drone operators aren't shy about flouting the current rules. Mike Fortin, president of an Orlando, Fla., drone company that films concerts and TV commercials, received an email from an FAA official in January telling him that his business was violating FAA policy.

"My response to the FAA was to piss off," he said. The FAA hasn't followed up.

Drone Dudes, of Los Angeles, has used drones for months to film commercials for companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT -0.01% and Kia Motor Corp. 000270.SE +0.53% "We haven't heard a peep" from the FAA, said Eric Maloney, head of production at Drone Dudes.

Brian Emfinger, a photojournalist for TV station KATV in Little Rock, Ark., got a mixed response from the FAA after using a 2.2-pound drone last month to film the aftermath of tornadoes. The video has racked up about 2.4 million views on YouTube.

KATV news director Nick Genty said an FAA spokesman notified him that the station's drone use was an FAA violation. Still, "they definitely didn't tell us to stop," Mr. Genty said, adding that KATV will continue to use drones for reporting.

[AZLiberty]

Who says the government isn’t looking out for us? Clearly the reason they bought a billion and a half hollow-point bullets was to take down these dangerous drones.

[USNBandit]

This happy go lucky attitude will prevail until the first person gets killed with one of these gizmos falls out of the sky. They just had a runner hit with one in a triathlon in Australia.

[shalom aleichem]

well a sky full of drones could pose a hazard to aircraft.

I am amazed it got this far with out any LEADERSHIP (ahem) to get it straight.

[Seizethecarp]

IMO the increasingly likely problem is not accidental collisions commercial crones and civilian airliners, it is intentional acts of terror committed by terrorists using drones.

Meanwhile since there are so man other federal SWAT teams can we expect an FAA SWAT team soon to go after illegal commercial drone scofflaws?

[gaijin]

Ya know why we’re REALLY reading this?

Cuz of the March 22 near-miss outside of Talahasse, Florida between a drone and a PSA commercial flight at 2,000 feet, something that wasn’t revealed until May 8th, just the other day.

You know what the word is..? That the culprit was UNCLE SCAM:

The rumors are that it was a QF-4 unmanned aerial target flown by the Air Force from Tyndall Air Force Base, outside Panama City.

[USNBandit]

The new reports I read said the pilots identified the plane as a rather small F-4. Since they were flying an RJ, I can't imagine describing a full sized Phantom as "rather small." More likely they would describe it at "f'ing huge, smoking like it was on fire".

The FAA said the plane in question was propellor driven, as well. This "drone" was an RC model.

[babygene]

Here’s one you can watch.

My son flying it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nu1wcutCVs&feature=em-subs_digest