By: Lydia M. Hilton The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is proposing a new rule to let drone operators fly at night and to fly over people, without having to obtain a waiver. The FAA has granted over 2,000 night waivers, thus, the rule allowing night operations is straight forward. The proposed rules allowing operations over people include[…]
Drone safety must not be approached casually or taken for granted even in relaxed settings. Incorporating drones into any business model requires thoughtful planning and preparation. It is easy to overlook risks obvious to others, especially if you are new to drones. This was illustrated by a recent incident. As I was running through an[…]
Below is this author’s present perspective on the four best known (as of today) drone law decisions and some lessons to be learned. In Huerta v. Pirker, [1] the National Transportation Safety Board held that “model aircraft” a/k/a drones are just a subset of “aircraft” and therefore subject to FAA regulation, however limited or extensive the boundaries of that regulation may[…]
Dismissal of Boggs v. Merideth because “using a federal forum to resolve Boggs’ [sic] garden variety state tort claim is inappropriate” exposes just how difficult it may be to get judicial guidance on core issues arising from unmanned aircraft systems (“UAS”) or “drones” in the national airspace. See Memorandum Opinion, (Doc. 20), Case No. 3:16-CV-00006-TBR (W.D. Ky. March 21,[…]
Although drones, or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), can come in small sizes, the propellers on drones and flying drone parts can inflict serious, sometimes irreparable damage. The eyes seem particularly vulnerable. Below is a list of some known injuries and the legal consequences: Full Thickness Corneal Laceration. This Spring, a products liability suit was filed against Parrott[…]
Signed by Governor Deal May 9, 2017, and effective July 1, 2017, a new state law in Georgia attempts to set boundaries on local governments to enact laws and ordinances concerning unmanned aircraft systems (“UAS”) or drones. The 2017 law is the verbatim repackaging of two sections of 2016 UAS legislation that was passed[…]