Clarity for emergency, law enforcement ops requested from FAA on drone rule

Protections so emergency responders can respond to crises are being sought in federal drone regulations by multiple attorneys general, including North Carolina’s first-term Democrat Jeff Jackson.Specifically, Jackson and other state prosecutors have asked the Federal Aviation Administration through Liam McKenna and Michelle Ferritto to give additional clarity to a May designation on restriction of unmanned aircraft in close proximity to a fixed site facility. Jackson and others don’t believe first responders have clearance to respond to emergencies using drones at certain sites without first getting FAA approval.
Jackson said, “Places like prisons and stadiums should be no-fly zones for drones so law enforcement can keep people safe. But those restrictions can’t get in the way of first responders or undermine North Carolina law. We’re asking the FAA to take another look at its proposal and make some changes so North Carolinians are safer in all situations.”
The FAA’s proposed rule in the Federal Register on May 6 would “establish a process for operators and proprietors of certain fixed site facilities to request and maintain an unmanned aircraft flight restriction” commonly known as a UAFR and “identifies the types of operations that are allowed” in the UAFR.
This means drones can’t be flown without FAA approval at sites like prisons, large sports venues such as the NFL Carolina Panthers’ 75,000-capacity Bank of America Stadium, or over critical infrastructure such as the McGuire Nuclear Station on Lake Norman near Huntersville.
Jackson supports the rule. So do attorneys general in Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Vermont. They’re each represented on the letter to McKenna, the chief counsel for the FAA, and Ferritto in the FAA’s Office of Rulemaking.
The prosecutors say disaster response, search and rescue missions, highly sensitive missions, law enforcement operations and other critical operations should be exempt. Having to give notice, they say, could “substantially delay or compromise these operations.”
Jackson wants to be sure the rule doesn’t override existing state law in North Carolina.
The prosecutors also request an information source, one place, that includes all no-fly zones “so drone pilots have the latest, correct information and won’t fly their drone over a restricted site.”
And, the prosecutors’ request the FAA to “clarify that new regulations would not alter authorization state and local governments have previously received from the federal government allowing them to detect and stop adversarial drones over sensitive sites.”

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