Feds look to require drone registration
BPC Staff Oct 19, 2015 | 8:27 pm
1 min read time
231 wordsAll Latest News, Government Policy and Law, TransportationU.S. regulators plan to require recreational drone owners to register their machines, an ambitious bid to rein in reckless users that faces a tight timeline and a thicket of legal and practical questions, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Transportation Department plans to require registration for all unmanned aircraft “except for toys and those with minimal safety risk.”
The department plans to create a task force of more than two dozen government and industry representatives to recommend the specifics of a registration policy, including which drones should be included, how users will register and whether the rules will apply to drones already sold, according to people familiar with the plans. The draft news release says the department wants to “create a culture of accountability” for drone operators.
Regulators and lawmakers have struggled to keep up with the proliferation of drones as new technology has made them smaller, cheaper and easier to fly, increasing concern that the devices pose a threat to people in the air and on the ground. Industry executives estimate that hundreds of thousands of drones have been sold in the U.S.
Registration would be one of regulators’ most ambitious steps to crack down on unsafe flights and enforce existing rules, including that drones can’t be flown near airports or beyond the sight of an operator.
Read our earlier story about the use of drones in Iowa onBusinessRecord.com.
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