Welcome to your weekly UAS news update. I have four stories for you this week. First up, the EFF is warning about arming police drones. Then a JetBlue pilot reporting a drone strike at 3,000 feet over JFK. Also, another JFK drone sighting that turns out to be just normal operation. And then lastly, we really have to talk about these World Cup TFR violations, because it is really not looking good. So let’s get to it.
The EFF Warns Lawmakers Are Running Out of Time to Stop Armed Police Drones
First up this week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF for short, is warning that lawmakers have precious little time to stop armed police drones. This comes after Skydio’s CEO recently walked back the company’s previous pledge to never weaponize their drones. And on top of that, a company called Campus Guardian Angel is rolling out what they call suppression drones in high schools in Georgia and Florida this fall.
These drones are designed to deploy pepper gel, strobe lights, and also kinetic strikes against active shooters. While the idea of stopping a threat kind of sounds good, quite frankly, the EFF points out that there are currently no federal laws governing when a police or security drone can use force. As the EFF put it, we cannot keep relying on the goodwill of companies that make their money selling technology to police departments to protect us from dangerous police technology. I’ll be watching this one closely to see where it goes.
A JetBlue Pilot Reports Striking a Drone at 3,000 Feet Over JFK
Next up, a JetBlue pilot reported striking a drone at 3,000 feet while on final approach to JFK — that’s in New York, for those of you not familiar. This was Flight 948, an Airbus A321. They landed safely, and then a post-flight inspection revealed that there was actually no damage to the aircraft at all. The FAA is currently investigating the incident.
Now, we’ve seen this story play out many times before in the drone industry. A pilot sees something flash by the windscreen at approach speed, reports a drone, and then later it turns out to have been a bird, a balloon, or something else. This happened recently with a United flight maybe a month ago or so. A drone at 3,000 feet is unusual, but don’t get me wrong, it’s not impossible. And while anyone flying illegally in controlled airspace deserves to be prosecuted, we also need to wait for the facts, because these headlines are going to hurt the industry even more.
Another JFK “Drone” Sighting Was Just an RC Airplane Flying Exactly Where It Should
Directly related to this, another drone sighting near JFK made national headlines this week, but this one was actually just a remote control airplane flying exactly where it was supposed to be. The aircraft that reported it was a Bell helicopter. The pilot reported a near miss with a large red and white RC airplane at about 500 feet. The catch here is that the helicopter was flying roughly 300 feet directly over an RC field.
This is a sanctioned National Park Service field that has hosted a model airplane club for decades. The pilot even told air traffic control that he saw more RC airplanes on the ground ready to launch — you wonder why. The FAA is reportedly not investigating this one, because, well, this is not really a mystery. But this is a good opportunity to remind you that operating at a known RC field does not give UAS any right of way over manned aircraft, and that you’re still limited to the altitude you were approved for.
World Cup TFR Violations Are Getting Worse — and Part 107 Pilots Are Part of the Problem
The last story this week is about the TFR violations around the World Cup. We reported this before, when the number of drone incursions was over 300 last week. And we kind of make fun of these numbers, but this figure has gone significantly up again this week, with even more weeks of World Cup games still coming up. This is really not looking good.
What’s also not looking good is that the initial feedback we’re getting is that a lot of these infractions are actually from Part 107 certificated pilots. As an industry, quite frankly, we have to do better. And I want to hear from you on this, because I just don’t understand it. Let me know in the comments how we as an industry can improve communication to drone pilots about these limitations. Why are Part 107 pilots getting caught flying where they are supposed to be educated on how to find TFRs?
We’ve seen overreactions to drone events in the past — a lot of them — whether real or perceived, and it never ended well for our industry. We need to make sure that a few bad actors don’t make it harder for the rest of us to do what we love. So I want to have that conversation with you, and I want to have it with other people too. We need to do absolutely better with this.
This article is based on a video from our YouTube partner Greg Reverdiau. Watch the full weekly UAS news update on the Pilot Institute YouTube channel, and find more of Greg’s work on his DroneXL author page.
