As of 1 February of 2018, new rules promulgated by the Swedish Transport Agency will apply to drones. The most significant changes are that all drones weighing less than 150 kilos will be covered by the rules. It will therefore no longer matter if the purpose of the flight is private or commercial. Drones used for special activities – military, customs, police, search and rescue, fire fighting, coast guard and accident investigation – will be exempted from the new rules. For these activities, special conditions apply instead. The license requirement for drones weighing less than 7 kilograms and flying within sight will be removed. Carl Svernlöv outlines the other changes introduced by the new regulations below.
The FAA is rolling out the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capacity (“LAANC”), a tool which is allowing operators of small unmanned aircraft systems (“sUAS” or drone) operators to get immediate approval for certain operations in controlled airspace. The introduction of LAANC will benefit commercial operators by decreasing the planning time required for many drone operations and increase flexibility in decisions. LAANC is currently supported at about 50 airports from Miami to Anchorage and is scheduled to expand next year.
Yesterday, the Department of Transportation (“DOT”) published details of the new Unmanned Aircraft System (“UAS” or “drone”) Integration Pilot Program (“Program”) in the Federal Register. The White Office of Science and Technology Policy launched this Program to encourage State, local, and tribal governments to collaborate with private industry on innovative UAS operations. The Program is the most significant change in UAS regulation by the Trump Administration and could lead to unprecedented opportunities for companies to test drone applications that were previously restricted.
But time is of the essence—communities and companies must move quickly to avail themselves of the new UAS opportunities. We encourage any interested parties to begin developing a plan and submit a Notice of Intent with the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) in the coming weeks. Details of the Program are explained below and are available in the Federal Register Notice.
The White House unveiled a highly anticipated Drone Integration Pilot Program (“Program”) that will allow state and local government to test different models for low-altitude regulation of drones, also known as unmanned aircraft systems (“UAS”). The Program represents a significant break from the Federal Aviation Administration’s (“FAA”) previous position to discourage state and local government involvement in most aspects of UAS operations and is designed to encourage private entities to undertake innovative UAS testing in the United States, such as drone package delivery. It will create more opportunities for cutting-edge commercial UAS flights for communities and operators, but the FAA and commercial aviation will likely continue to resist expanded operations that pose safety risks, including flights near airports.
This month, the FAA issued a small UAS (sUAS) operating waiver that allows CNN to operate over people, including non-participants. Building on CNN’s previous waiver, this new waiver represents a growing opportunity for businesses to use drones for well-attended events.
Earlier this month, a small commercial airplane collided with an unmanned aircraft system (“UAS” or drone) during its final descent into Jean Lesage International Airport in Quebec City, Canada. After numerous near-misses, this was the first confirmed collision between a drone and a commercial aircraft in North America. The incident has renewed UAS safety and enforcement concerns, but also highlights opportunities and tools necessary to further improve the system.
In the autumn of 2016, the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court ruled that a camera mounted on a drone is considered a CCTV camera for purposes of the Swedish Camera Surveillance Act (2013:460). The judgment meant that using a drone equipped with a camera, where the camera will be directed at a place to which the public has access, requires a license from the County Administrative Board. Since a license in principle is granted only for the prevention of crime, the normal commercial and recreational use of a drone equipped with a camera immediately became for practical purposes prohibited in Sweden. New legislation has now been passed to exempt the private use of drone cameras from the permit requirements, making drone use in Sweden legal again on 1 August 2017.
Today, a federal judge struck down a Newton, Massachusetts, ordinance regulating drone operations in the city, holding that the ordinance was preempted based on Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) regulations and federal statutes. Saying the ordinance “essentially constitutes a wholesale ban on drone use” and was an “interven[tion] in the FAA’s careful regulation of aircraft safety,” District Judge William G. Young reaffirmed the FAA’s broad jurisdiction over drones (also known as unmanned aircraft systems or “UAS”) in national airspace.
As Congress considers provisions for potential inclusion in a long-term FAA Reauthorization Bill, one piece of legislation in Congress attempts to vastly redefine the relative roles of the federal and state governments. The Drone Federalism Act of 2017 is a bipartisan bill that would give additional authority to state and local governments to regulate UAS operations below 200 feet and potentially lessen the FAA’s control over certain drone operations.
EASA is proposing to impose UAS standards throughout EU Member States, harmonizing rules for UAS operations and establishing a low-risk and medium-risk operational categories, Open and Specific, respectively. In addition to the operating rules, EASA is also proposing to impose requirements on manufacturers, importers, and distributors to ensure that operators can more easily comply with the proposed framework, particularly for the operation of off-the-shelf UAS that will not require approvals. For businesses that want to go beyond the limits of the Open category operations, such as testing new UAS platforms, some form of approval will be required, but EASA is considering mechanisms that can facilitate those operations. EASA seeks public comments by September 15th.