New York has made it a crime to fly a drone within 500 feet of places including schools, police and fire stations, airports, prisons, critical infrastructure and any event drawing 500 or more people. The offense, unlawful use of a drone, came in with the 2026-27 state budget as Penal Law Article 280 and has been in force since August 25. It is a class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
On Friday, Vic Moss, CEO and co-founder of the Drone Service Providers Alliance, walked the Commercial Drone Pilots group on Facebook through the law and concluded that commercial operators flying under Part 107 are covered. The text backs him. The exemption the law writes for hobbyists is narrower: it covers drones that weigh 0.55 pounds or less at takeoff. DJI’s spec sheet puts the DJI Mini 5 Pro at 249.9 grams.
Part 107 Pilots Fall Under New York’s Lawful-Purpose Exemption
Section 280.10(3) exempts drones flown for commercial, educational, agricultural, journalistic, infrastructure or other lawful purposes that comply with every applicable federal, state and local rule. The exemption covers both the prohibited-space ban and the nefarious-use ban, and it falls away only when a pilot recklessly risks injury or property damage.
Moss leads with a different argument and adds that exemption after it. Section 280.05 bans flights over prohibited space made without “express prior approval from someone the person reasonably believes has the authority” to grant it. He cites 49 U.S.C. 40103, which gives the federal government exclusive sovereignty over US airspace, and argues that a pilot flying legally under Part 107 or the recreational exception in 49 U.S.C. 44809 would reasonably believe they have that approval. His advice is to print the full article and “keep it in your Policy and Procedures manual.” He labeled the post as not legal advice.
Near an airport, a LAANC authorization may well count as that express approval. In uncontrolled Class G airspace a Part 107 flight needs no authorization from anyone, which makes the exemption the firmer footing. The approval route also runs through the site itself, since the statute accepts approval from anyone the pilot reasonably believes can grant it.
New York’s Prohibited Space Names No Sites and Comes With Takedown Powers
Section 280.00 extends prohibited space 500 feet beyond each site’s boundary and 400 feet up, or higher without FAA authorization. Its critical infrastructure category borrows a Freedom of Information Law definition. That definition covers anything “so vital to the state” that losing it endangers the public, without naming any site.
The same budget bill gave police a way to act on that space. Executive Law Section 236 lets trained police and peace officers detect, track, intercept or disable a drone that poses a credible threat. Non-kinetic measures need reasonable suspicion that a drone is flying in prohibited space or in a nefarious manner. Kinetic measures need probable cause and federally approved equipment, and only come into play when non-kinetic measures have failed or would be expected to.
Officers must finish State Police training plus whatever certification federal law requires, which ties New York’s authority to the federal SAFER SKIES Act that let the NYPD stand up its counter-drone unit in May. The State Police have six months from the section taking effect to write the mitigation rules, and agencies must report every use to them within 48 hours.
DJI’s Mini 5 Pro Spec Sits Above New York’s Hobby Weight Line
Converted, 0.55 pounds is 249.5 grams, so DJI’s own 249.9-gram figure for the Mini 5 Pro is 0.4 grams over New York’s recreational drone line. DJI lists a tolerance of plus or minus 4 grams, and DroneXL has reported Mini 5 Pro units weighing 252 to 253 grams.
The definition also requires a drone flown exclusively under 49 U.S.C. 44809, and it counts everything on board at takeoff. A recreational drone loses its status the moment it carries a payload beyond its flight equipment and onboard sensors. A DJI Mini 4 Pro on its standard battery, which DJI rates under 249 grams, fits. The 724-gram DJI Air 3S from DroneXL’s six-month review does not come close.
Outside prohibited space, a hobbyist with a heavier drone commits no crime under Article 280 unless they fly in a nefarious manner. Inside it, their one possible shelter is the “other lawful purposes” language in subsection 3, and the text does not say whether a recreational flight counts. The law’s separate toy drone exemption does not help: it excludes any drone carrying a camera or other recording sensor.
DroneXL’s Take
New York wrote a hobby exemption that fits a Mini 4 Pro and stops short of the Mini 5 Pro, DJI’s current sub-250-gram flagship. The nefarious-manner half of Article 280 targets conduct that actually happens, like the knives and drugs a drone dropped into Marcy Correctional Facility in March, and I have no quarrel with it. The prohibited-space half is different. A 500-foot ring around every school and firehouse, plus critical infrastructure the law never lists, is a lot of airspace for a hobbyist to map alone, and the weight cap leaves anyone flying a Mini 5 Pro or an Air 3S near a volunteer fire station relying on a court reading “other lawful purposes” generously.
I doubt anyone in Albany set out to make that flight a misdemeanor, but the text allows it, and once the State Police rules are written, Section 236 lets a trained officer move against it on reasonable suspicion of a credible threat. The fix is one change to Section 280.00(3): drop the weight cap and keep the 44809 requirement. The legislature convenes in January. Until it acts, anyone flying anything heavier than a Mini 4 Pro for fun in New York should treat those 500-foot rings as no-fly zones unless they have the site’s express OK.
Sources: New York Penal Law Article 280, New York Executive Law Section 236, Vic Moss in the Commercial Drone Pilots Facebook group.
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.
