(NBC News) - When the U.S. said this week it was sending 80 military service members to
Nigeria to oversee drone aircraft searching for hundreds of abducted
schoolgirls, it raised an obvious question: Why isn't that common here
in America?
The reason is that the Federal Aviation
Administration "never intended to regulate model aircraft," said Garry
Richard Lane, a specialist in aviation law in New Hampshire, where
legislation to restrict the use of drones failed last month.
Wait — "model aircraft"?
Saddled
with definitions arrived at long before small remote-controlled
aircraft became capable of carrying sophisticated equipment like
high-definition cameras and professional sound gear, FAA regulations
still consider unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, the playthings of
hobbyists.
And federal regulations allow the use of hobby
aircraft only below 400 feet in remote areas away from any airport and
only for non-commercial purposes.
That means sophisticated rescue
drones costing tens of thousands of dollars or more are regulated
exactly like the $120 FunJet Ultra Kit you might find at your local
Hobby Lobby.
UAVs are allowed in national
airspace only under "very controlled conditions," the FAA says. Even
police have to wait for a special "certificate of authorization" before
they can send up a drone in a time-is-ticking search for a missing
person.
The regulatory myopia could have tragic implications, said Lane, a licensed pilot.
If
rescue crews have a drone in the back of a car, "They might find
somebody within minutes alive, instead of dead by a helicopter" hours
later, he told NBC News.
That's why a Texas volunteer
search-and-rescue organization is suing the FAA after it ordered the
group to stop using drones to find missing persons.
The organization, Texas EquuSearch Mounted Search and Recovery Team of Dickinson, calls
camera-equipped model aircraft "the single most powerful
search-and-rescue tool ... to save time during the crucial early hours
of the search."
READ MORE | FAA Search-and-Rescue Drone Suit Could Have Widespread Impact
Texas
EquuSearch is a nonprofit, and it doesn't charge anything for use of
its aircraft. "But it accepts donations, and in the FAA's view, that's a
commercial activity," Lane said.
And the FAA makes little distinction between civilians and law enforcement.
"If
a police department tries to do the same darn thing, they are also
getting paid," Lane said, so "that is also considered commercial use by
the FAA."
Congress
has ordered the FAA to draw up new regulations that sensibly
accommodate UAVs. But in its November status report on the effort,
the FAA called that "a significant challenge."
Just one critical
component of any new FAA rules — publication of certification rules for
pilots in drone-flying classes — could take until 2017, the agency
said. Others might not be completed until 2026, the FAA projected.
Then
there are the "security vetting for certification and training of UAS
(unmanned air systems) related personnel, addressing cyber and
communications vulnerabilities, and
maintaining/enhancing air defense and air domain awareness capabilities
in an increasingly complex and crowded airspace," the FAA said.
Lane
is hoping the clamor of dozens of drone aviation companies that want to
do business in the U.S. will expedite at least some form of interim regulation.
In
a report it issued this month, the Association for Unmanned
Vehicle Systems International, a Washington-based trade group, projected
that fully integrating UAVs into the national air system would create
more than 100,000 jobs and spin off $82 billion in economic impact
within 10 years.
"There are all these companies that want to get
into this market, but they can't," he said. "There's a lot of people
putting pressure on the FAA. The pressure is there."
Jim
Williams, the FAA manager in charge of the project, said earlier this
month that the agency is working with several industries to allow
limited commercial operations before final rules are issued. But in
remarks at the Small Unmanned Systems Business Exposition in San
Francisco, he issued a new caution about the danger of allowing even
small drones to share airspace with jetliners.
After a pilot
reported a near-midair collision with a drone near the Tallahassee
Regional Airport in Florida in March, "the pilot said that the [drone]
was so close to his jet that he was sure he had collided with it,"
Williams said at the San Francisco convention. While no damage was
found, "this may not always be the case," he added.
That's a
legitimate concern, Lane said, and any FAA regulations could require an
authorized drone operator "to already be a commercial aircraft pilot" on
top of earning "some kind of UAV license."
Lane said he's
"optimistic that the FAA will start approving something in the
relatively near future — maybe the next few months." But the nature of
regulatory review and approval means any new rules are "not going to be
in effect for another year and a half" in the best of scenarios, he
said.
Then there's the hurdle of public perception. The main
fears are that a drone might fall on someone's head (which has happened
in other countries) and most of all, privacy — which Lane said is a
misplaced concern.
"This isn't about police wanting to have a
drone hovering in your backyard watching you in your living room or
swimming pool," he said.
Besides, there are much more effective ways for cops to snoop on you than with a drone.
"If
I'm a police officer, I'm not going to do it with a drone," Lane said.
"A propeller makes noise. You'd hear, so you're going to notice."
Lane
acknowledged that the FAA is "in a hard position," because "there's a
whole range of sizes and there's a whole range of uses."
"Part of
the problem the FAA has is what are all of these uses and how do we
create regulations for the Predator-size drones and the smaller drones?"
he asked.
But "they should have anticipated some of this long ago," he said.
READ MORE | Drone swarms could be lifesaver in disasters
There
have been success stories involving the use of drones at disaster
scenes and in missing persons cases, but there is so much more potential
if drones are unshackled, Lane said.
"The tech is there, but we're waiting for the FAA to catch up," he said. "They can save lives right now."
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