The U.S. Department of Transportation’s fast-track plan to register recreational drones may not directly affect Amazon’s ambitions of using robo-fliers to deliver purchases, but it could have a big impact on how you buy a drone from Amazon for the holidays.
Flanked by a phalanx of officials and industry leaders, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx today announced the creation of a task force that’s due to make recommendations for a registration system by Nov. 20 – with the aim of having the rules in place by mid-December.
Those who already own recreational drones would be required to register retroactively, Foxx said. It’s not yet clear exactly how the system would work – for example, whether operators would have to register in order to purchase the drone or sign up afterward – but Foxx promised the system would be “as user-friendly a portal as possible.”
Getting a system in place within two months would set a record for rule-setting by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Transportation’s lead agency for drone regulation. The FAA has been working on rules to regulate small commercial drones – like the ones Amazon plans to use for “Prime Air” deliveries – for more than eight months, but those regulations have not yet been put into effect.
What’s more, existing law has kept the FAA from imposing a licensing requirement on hobbyist or recreational drones, as long as they remain below 400 feet and stay away from airports or other sensitive sites. But Foxx told reporters that registration wasn’t the same as licensing. “When it comes to registration, this is a safety authority that the FAA has, and it’s one that we’re exercising,” he said.
Foxx said the registration effort was being fast-tracked due to the rapid rise in drone sales, and the rapid increase in reports of aerial interference. “We do feel the level of urgency here is sufficient to move as quickly as we possibly can,” he said.
In July, the Consumer Electronics Association projected that 700,000 unmanned aerial vehicles would be sold this year, amounting to annual sales volume of $105 million. That’s more than a 50 percent increase over last year’s sales, and a similar jump is projected for 2016. Tim Canoll, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, cited an even higher estimate: “There is an anticipation of sales of more than 1 mlllion UASes [unmanned aerial systems] during this year’s holiday season,” he said during today’s news briefing.
FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said there’s been a “significant increase in reports” of drone interference as well. The agency says pilot sightings of drones – including appearances at sporting events and flights near piloted aircraft – have doubled over the past year. Perhaps the most notorious incident took place in January when a federal employee who had been drinking lost control of a remotely piloted drone and had it crash on the grounds of the White House.
Foxx said the aim of the registration system would be to find offending drone operators more quickly, by using information that’s on the device. “Finding the drone has not been as much of a problem as finding the person who’s using the drone,” he said. “And the registration is designed to close that loophole.”
Twenty-five to 30 representatives from industry, government and other groups of stakeholders would be on the task force to draw up recommendations, the Department of Transportation said in a news release. The task force would consider options for the registration system, as well as the flying vehicles that would be exempt – for example, because they’re basically toys that pose little safety risk.
When unregistered drones are outlawed, will only outlaws have unregistered drones? “There are actually federal penalties associated with violating the requirements that we will be imposing,” Foxx said.
Just this month, for instance, the FAA proposed a $1.9 million civil penalty against SkyPan International, a commercial drone operator that has been accused of conducting 65 unauthorized operations in the national airspace.
