As private and commercial drones take to the skies in increasing numbers, legislators want the Federal Aviation Administration to improve air safety without stalling commercial innovation.
Incidents involving unmanned aerial systems and larger aircraft have become more common. At a Nov. 29 hearing of the House Transportation Committee’s Aviation Subcommittee, Chairman Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J) described a September collision between a U.S. Army helicopter and an illegally operated drone that caused «hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to that aircraft.»
Not long after, an airliner preparing to land in Canada was hit by a drone. «We were lucky,» LoBiondo said. «No one was hurt or killed in those incidents. But we cannot count on luck to keep us safe the next time around. »
«The biggest problem so far is with idiots who have toy drones,» said Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.). «This an accident waiting to happen. We are going to lose an aircraft.»
At the same time, DeFazio said, «commercial operations should not be held back because we’ve got these people out there operating these illegally.» He expressed disbelief that geofencing — built-in technology to prevent a UAS from operating near airports or other sensitive efforts — is not required for all drones sold. And he called for faster deployment of remote detection and identification systems for UAS.
The FAA gets more than 250 sightings a month of potentially risky UAS flights — often operating too close to airports.
Earl Lawrence, the executive director of the FAA’s UAS Integration Office, told legislators «identification is now at the top of our priority.» The technology for identifying drones in flight is evolving very quickly, he said, so the agency had taken care to solicit broad industry input. But with that information now gathered, the FAA is now «moving forward with our rule-making activity,» he said.
Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), who chairs the full Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, asked if those rules would be out in within «a few months.» Lawrence demurred, saying that «rule-making is a deliberative process.»
Shuster said such slowness was a key part of the problem and said that remote identification of UAS was key to both law enforcement and public safety.
Brian Wynne, the president and CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, agreed. «We as an organization are against anonymous flying,» he said at the hearing. «Aircraft need to be visible to one another so that we can avoid conflicts. "¦ They need to be detecting one another, they need to be identifiable to one another, and they need to be responsible to one another»…
