Captain Kyle Nordfors, the drone coordinator for Weber County Search and Rescue in Utah and UAS chair of the Mountain Rescue Association, has told the Federal Communications Commission that its proposal to pull import and sales clearance from foreign-made thermal and LiDAR drones will cost American lives, and that no aircraft built in the United States can replace what his team flies today. He filed the comments in PS Docket 26-189 today and shared the full text with DroneXL.

Nordfors is not a lobbyist. He has flown for a major US airline since the early 2000s, has flown drones since 2010, and has run Weber County’s drone program since 2018. I have covered his team’s rescues for years, and his comments read the way he talks on a mountain: short, blunt, and aimed at whoever is making the decision.

The comment window in the docket closes at midnight Eastern tonight. His full text is below, along with how to file your own.

Nordfors Says No American Drone Matches What Rescue Teams Fly Today

Nordfors writes that no American-made drone gives search and rescue teams the capability they fly with today, and that the proposal would set the country back an easy ten years. He names Skydio directly, says he has tested the domestic alternatives, and offers to demonstrate the gap to the Commission.

The comments go after the premise of Public Notice DA 26-758 rather than its details. The Bureau’s economic analysis tentatively concludes that domestic production is more prevalent in the higher-end categories the proposal covers, so the ban will not bite hard. Nordfors answers that the companies positioned to benefit charge three to eight times the price for aircraft he says are less than half as capable, and that volunteer rescue teams cannot afford them at any multiple. He calls the proposal the weaponization of the FCC for political reasons and says the agency has blood on its hands from the December Covered List action that already blocks new DJI and Autel models.

That is a harder register than anything in DroneXL’s own filing today, and he knows it. He signs the letter with an open invitation to any FCC official to come to Utah and watch a search.

Weber County’s Record Is The Evidence Behind The Comments

Weber County Search and Rescue is one of the most documented drone rescue programs in the country. Nordfors has estimated his team’s DJI enterprise aircraft were instrumental in saving 25 to 30 lives, and the program cut average search time from four hours and 35 minutes to 58 minutes.

Those numbers are not new to DroneXL readers. Our December 2025 investigation into DJI drones saving American lives documented the North Fork rescue where a pre-release DJI Matrice 30T thermal camera found a stranded snowboarder within ten minutes of launch, in the dark, with ice forming on his skin. The search-time figure comes from the program data we reported in March, when the DRONERESPONDERS SAR Working Group he helps run took up pilot training.

His standing in the field is not in question either. Nordfors took the Unsung Hero Award at the Global Search and Rescue Excellence Awards in London in May 2025 for the drone work behind those rescues. And he has been on the record against the domestic manufacturers pushing for these restrictions since long before this docket existed; his Drones After Dark appearance in March 2025 went at Skydio and BRINC by name.

The proposal reaches every aircraft his team flies. DroneXL walked through the seven categories on August 16: any drone carrying a thermal sensor, any drone carrying LiDAR, docking stations, spray platforms, and anything at or above 55 pounds. A Matrice 30T is a thermal drone. So is every replacement Weber County would buy.

Comments Close At Midnight Eastern Tonight

Comments in PS Docket 26-189 are due by midnight Eastern tonight, September 2. The FCC denied three extension requests on August 28. Filing takes about ten minutes through the Electronic Comment Filing System, and DroneXL published a step-by-step guide alongside its own comments earlier today.

The short version: open the ECFS Express form, type 26-189 in the Proceeding(s) box and select the docket when it appears, enter your name and address, paste your comment, and submit. If you have cost figures or a document to attach, use the Standard form instead. The FCC’s own guidance puts the electronic cutoff at midnight Eastern on the deadline date.

Nordfors’s letter is a model for what a public safety comment can be when it skips the policy argument. Fewer than 3,000 comments were on file as of Tuesday, against nearly half a million certificated pilots. If you run a rescue drone, the Bureau has never heard from you unless you have filed.

The Full Text Of Nordfors’s Comments

What follows is the complete text of the comments Kyle Nordfors shared with DroneXL, reproduced as written. It runs under 700 words and cites no regulation. What it carries instead is a rescue pilot’s direct account of what the equipment does on a mountain at night.

To whom it may concern

The use of UAS in Search and Rescue has fundamentally transformed the manner in which rescues are conducted. The entire format and schedule of actionable items has changed and due to this technology we are saving more lives, and getting the rescuers home to their families faster and safer. Thanks to these super capable and affordable platforms like DJI and Autel, we are saving countless American lives.

The recent actions taken by the FCC not allowing certain new drones to be certified will cost American lives. The FCC frankly has blood on their hands for this political decision. This new proposal will thicken the amount of blood it currently has by risking even more American lives. This proposal is not needed, it is fueled by unproven political ideology, supported by those seeking monetary gain, and makes the American public less safe.

Let me be as clear as I can as an aviation and search and rescue expert: this proposal will cost American lives. Period. This proposal is the definition of overreach and is the weaponization of the FCC for political reasons. The day will come (if not already) where a public safety official could have saved an American life but couldn’t because of a political decision like this took the most capable tool from his/her hands.

The language in this proposal is overbroad and strips public safety officials of life saving equipment. This proposal is going to do so much harm and provide little to no good for the American public. The only ones who will gain are those companies in position to make money charging 3-8X the price for a less than half as capable aircraft.

The fun term in DC lately has been “American Drone Dominance” which was obviously coined by someone who knows very little about the UAS industry. There is no current American made drone that will provide Search and Rescue practitioners with that which we need to execute our missions as we are doing so today. This proposal will set our country back an easy 10 years in capability and reliability. The American drone company Skydio for example (who is a supporter and has lobbied for this type of action) will not come close to giving us half of our capability, nor can search and rescue volunteers afford it. The other US based companies fall into the same category, I have tested this, I have proven it, and I’m happy to show you. This proposal will only take life saving tools from those that volunteer their time to save lives.

For those of you at the FCC reading these comments, if at any time your loved ones go lost in any one of our many beautiful wilderness areas or mountains, you will want those that are looking for them to have the best and most capable/reliable equipment to bring your loved ones home. This proposal and past actions greatly decrease the odds of success.

I implore you at the FCC and other governmental agencies, do not take these actions, do not risk American lives. This faux act of American superiority or faux patriotism will have deadly consequences.

American lives over American profits. American lives over political agendas. Do the right thing. I leave an open invite to any member of the FCC to come to our mountains in Utah to see exactly why we need these aircraft to save lives.

Sincerely

Captain Kyle Nordfors Weber County Search and Rescue UAS Coordinator Mountain Rescue Association UAS Chair

DroneXL’s Take

Strip the heat out of Nordfors’s language and what remains is a testable claim: no domestic aircraft at a volunteer team’s price does what his DJI fleet does, and he will prove it to anyone from the Bureau who flies to Utah. The Commission’s economic analysis assumes the opposite.

I will say the obvious thing first. “Blood on their hands” is not how you win a regulator over, and a Bureau attorney reading this letter will discount the tone before reaching the substance. Nordfors knows that and wrote it anyway, and I understand why. He is the one who gets the call at 2 a.m. when a snowboarder is missing in North Fork. The staff who drafted DA 26-758 are not.

The substance survives the tone. The notice asks, in its own words, whether domestically produced alternatives exist for the military-grade categories and whether the economic impact is minor and contained. Nordfors is a Part 107 pilot with an airline captain’s certificate and a decade of documented rescues who says he has flown the alternatives and they fall short, and he offers a live demonstration on the record. That is exactly the kind of evidence the Bureau invited. If it wants to conclude that substitutes exist, it now has to explain why it did not take the invitation.

“American lives over American profits. American lives over political agendas,” he writes. My read is that this sentence will be quoted back at the Commission by more than one commenter before the record closes tonight, and that the Bureau’s order, whenever it comes, will have to address the public safety record directly rather than through the tentative finding that recreational users are the only ones affected. Whether anyone from the FCC ever stands on a Utah ridgeline with him is the thing I will be watching for.

If you fly for a rescue team, a fire department, or a sheriff’s office, file your comments today. Nordfors has shown what a filing looks like when it stops arguing policy and starts describing the work. Yours does not need to match his tone. It needs your county, your aircraft, your searches, and what happens to the next one if the equipment cannot be replaced. The docket closes at midnight Eastern. Write it now.

Sources: Comments of Captain Kyle Nordfors, filed in PS Docket No. 26-189, September 2, 2026, shared with DroneXL; FCC Public Notice DA 26-758; Federal Register 91 FR 48870; FCC Order DA 26-892; FCC guidance on filing comments

DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.