Drone Search and Rescue Operation Wins Fight Against FAA

An anonymous reader writes: Back in February, officials at the Federal Aviation Administration told a Texas search-and-rescue team they couldn't use drones help locate missing persons. The team, which is called EquuSearch, challenged the FAA in court. On Friday, the court ruled (PDF) in favor of EquuSearch, saying the FAA's directive was "not a formal cease-and-desist letter representing the agency's final conclusion." EquuSearch intends to resume using the drones immediately. This puts the FAA in the position of having to either initiate formal proceedings against EquuSearch, which is clearly operating to the benefit of society (as opposed to purely commercial drone use), or to revisit and finalize its rules for small aircraft entirely. The latter would be a lengthy process because "Congress has delegated rule making powers to its agencies, but the Administrative Procedures Act requires the agencies to provide a public notice and comment period first."

Comments

ugh

[dale.furno]

"Congress has delegated rule making powers to its agencies"

This is what makes those agencies so intimidating. They have given up control.

both?

[waddgodd]

Can we have the FAA institute formal proceedings against Equusearch so they can get bitchslapped by whatever court they try it in AND have to go through the rulemaking again as well? Please?

Re:both?

[BitZtream]

No, stop being such an ignorant douche.

The FAA had made the current policies to prevent idiots who think they know everything (i.e. people like you) who have more money than brains from getting a UAV and hurting people by dropping it on someones head, though their roof or flying it into another aircraft.

All this court has said is that 'your policy isn't a regulation, YET'. Did you notice the YET part.

The FAA is empowered by Congress via congressional order to regulate these activities. Its what they do. The only reason EquuSearch has 'won' here is because the FAA ISN'T RUSHING INTO MAKING A STUPID BUNCH OF REGULATIONS THAT WE'RE ALL STUCK WITH BECAUSE OF SOME ASSHOLE LIKE YOU. The FAA can fairly easily turn their current policies into law and there isn't shit you can do about it, its just a matter of time. Is that what you want?

If you 'search the net' for events relating to drones ... take away the EquuSearch related results, you'll find that pretty much EVERY ONE OF THEM is some fucking moron doing something that either DID hurt someone, was dangers as shit, came very close to hurting someone, or certainly had the potential to hurt someone. That is EXACTLY what the FAA is supposed to prevent.

As someone who flies UAVs for fun and profit (yes, I fly them illegally) I am in 100% agreement with the FAA at this point. I've been flying RC for almost 30 years and universally, the people who scream the loudest about the FAA regulation and policies are the idiots who get people hurt.

What you don't want is the FAA getting pissed off at idiots like you and fast tracking a regulation that makes any autonomous or camera equipped aircraft of any size or use to require a Certificate of Airworthiness, which is the EASIEST thing for them to do. Then EquuSearch is done, and so am I, and so are a bunch of hobbyists ... because some asshole like you with no idea whats going on thinks the Gubment needs to get out of the way and instead gets the exact opposite of what you want. EquuSearch is an EXTREMELY rare exception to the rule.

Screaming idiots like you aren't helping the cause. The FAA won't get 'bitchslapped', making these rules is their job, by law. The only court cases the FAA has 'lost' are ones that essentially say 'your policies are not regulations, go make them regulations'.

The FAA making their current policies regulations is EXACTLY WHAT YOU DON'T WANT.

So I restate my first sentence. Stop being such an ignorant douche.

Re:both?

[Trailer Trash]

If that's true then why do they care whether the usage is commercial or not? Have you read their little chart? Taking a picture of your house is fine, but a real estate agent doing the same thing is illegal. There's no difference between the actions and the aircraft - it's just the fact that money will change hands.

If this had anything to do with "safety" and all that then it wouldn't matter whether money was changing hands.