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Drone Sightings Near Other Aircraft Up Dramatically
schwit1 writes The government is getting near-daily reports — and sometimes two or three a day — of drones flying near airplanes and helicopters or close to airports without permission, federal and industry officials tell The Associated Press. It's a sharp increase from just two years ago when such reports were still unusual. Many of the reports are filed with the Federal Aviation Administration by airline pilots. But other pilots, airport officials and local authorities often file reports as well, said the officials, who agreed to discuss the matter only on the condition that they not be named because they weren't authorized to speak publicly. Michael Toscano, president of a drone industry trade group, said FAA officials also have verified the increase to him. While many of the reports are unconfirmed, raising the possibility that pilots may have mistaken a bird or another plane in the distance for a drone, the officials said other reports appear to be credible.
Drones are so much fun and you can get so many cool photos and video from them.
Yet these morons flying drones near airports are going to ruin it for everyone. Expect to see them heavily regulated or banned soon.
This is why we can't have nice things. :(
Or are they remote-controlled Italian hyperspace toads being flown by Wi-Fi signals from an evil stealth Toad satellite over Chicago?
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I was about to say that I've noticed a lot more planes around my drones lately.
neighborhoods? It's the Republican's plan to harm children. They keep them up with their constant drone noise in order to make sure they can't sleep so they can't sleep in school. It's the same reason their kind builds so many freeways in poor areas. They hate us and want to doom our children to low paying jobs.
I used to fly remote controlled model airplanes when I was a kid. Some of them were quite large - larger than any remote controlled quadcopter I've ever seen. Never called them drones, though. So, what makes a drone, a drone? A camera? A weapon? More than one engine?
Why would a drone pilot need to fly near an airport? Those things can go anywhere. This just doesn't make any sense that there are that many drone pilots that figure that they need to fly near the airport.
Our government has for decades refused to believe pilots when they report seeing UFOs, even when there is radar evidence to back them up. Now, when they want to prohibit the use of drones, they are suddenly willing to believe any sighting a pilot makes?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
In Canada, drones are more widely used than in the US, mostly because you can actually legally use a drone for commercial purposes. There are laws about drones: no flying at night, no flying within 5 miles of an airport, no flying above 1200 feet. Spying on people is also illegal. You can take pictures of people on the beach, not through bedroom windows of a 20 story building. Laws are fairly heavily enforced. The police have drones too, and theirs will go after yours. At the most fun: you lose your drone (you can keep the remote, but the drone is gone). At the least fun: the drone is gone, and the remote, and the fingerprints on it lead back to you, and now you stare at the world from the window of the crowbar hotel.
its title.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Not only does the FAA have to deal with these unauthorized drone flights, they have to deal with leaks from within the FAA to the media. These leakers are publicly stating that they are in no way authorized to speak to the media, freely declaring their guilt.
When is the FAA going to crack down on these officials who are leaking information to the media when they have been banned?
This seems to be happening quite alot, and it seems that these officials are able to leak information with impunity, knowing that nobody is going to get fired for unauthorized leaks.
This is not a good look.
We speak the truth, no matter what!
So when are you actually going to start speaking the truth then?
All I see is lolgibberish.
people fascinated with drones are fascinated with planes too
"The government is getting near-daily reports..."
I want Slashdot readers to know I love them for so many insights. But let's not be arrogant about US citizenship. Many readers are not so blessed, and when we say "the government" they may be confused about which we are referring to.
Please, then, say "the US government" if that is what you are speaking of. Notice that most of those outsiders specify which government they are speaking of. And for all you little foreigners, I hope you benefit from this message.
...omphaloskepsis often...
OK, I'm talking more about commercial airliners here rather than piston engined aircraft, but don't they test those engines by firing frozen chickens onto them? If a lightweight plastic drone presents such a risk to an Airbus, then I might holiday closer to home on the future. Do flocks of drones really sit around on the grass at airports waiting to throw themselves into the path of approaching aircraft? Of course I'm not seriously suggesting that they present zero risk, until some loon packs them with explosives before deliberately placing them in a flight path.
Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. - William Shakespeare
(Footnote... *if Snowden, not "of Snowden" and I I know it's "there" not "they're". I generally proof these before hitting post but sometimes something slips by. )
Just try getting a "cool photo" from me. Your drone will be scrap with a bullet through it.
Perhaps this could be that there are a lot more "drones" flying today than were two years ago? The technology, at an affordable consumer level, is relatively new.
Fucking idiots. Go drone yourself.
I'm seeing, and reading about, remote controlled aircraft. What drones is the media talking about exactly, because as far as I know, actual drone aircraft, are priced way outside of the average consumers pocket book.
The ship on correct verbage here may have sailed, but I'm still going to correct anyone who gets it wrong.
if UAV = DRONE then =! RC QUADCOPTER
"Modern drones though, basically do "all the hard stuff" for you."
No they don't - they have auto stabilisation and thats it. You fly a drone in any kind of wind and it'll drift and you have to constantly adjust the throttle to keep it at the right height. Perhaps the really expensive kit has GPS and can keep itself at a certain location and height but the cheap ones most certainly do not.
Pay Bubba and his buddies to do patrols around the airport. Any drone which flies within a certain area is fair game for target practice.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
This has the smell of a government agency putting out a story to justify the actions it has taken or is about to take. The FAA is obviously getting concerned that there's too much loose talk about reining in its rulemaking in this area, or circumscribing it, and wants to get out ahead of that. What better way to achieve that than to portray drones as endangering the public's lives every time they fly?
PHAH!
Pilots can't tell the planet Venus from a UFO, even when clearly marked. Granted, this presupposes the pilot knew "Arabic" for that bit of Looney Tunes ontological camouflage to work
Highly trained observers my ass.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Great, now we have to accelerate our schedule and start building anti anti-drone drones.
Thanks a lot, Thanshin!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Make it mandatory to have transponders that identify it as not a bird to any aircraft that's near by. That should help cool the fears of killing another bird,
Arguments that these pilots are seeing something besides a drone are possible, but unlikely.
It seems more likely that the pilots are only seeing a few of what is actually out there.
There are lots of folks doing fun, safe and, useful things with these gadgets.
But there ARE some morons (pronounced first o extra long) out there doing dumb things.
There are U-tube videos shot from drones flying over airports at night likely with autonomous flight.
I have personally seen one one in the air near my plane.
Remember Churchill's comment about the Americans.
You can always count on them to do the right thing after trying all the other options.
The FAA seems to be following this strategy.
We need less foot dragging and more providing teeth for the AMA's proven rule set.
Slashdort.
hahahahah.
I'm using that from now on.
I guess it could be worse.. they could mistake other planets as planes.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/17/uk-canada-aircanada-incident-idUSLNE83G01820120417
Expect to see them heavily regulated or banned soon.
Exactly how are they going to ban them? Short of banning them completely from stores -- a heavy-handed move that would likely meet significant legal obstacles -- they're going to be out there. You can't control where people fly these things, either. You could try jamming commonly-used RC frequencies to stop people from manually flying them here or there, but you can't stop someone who might pre-program a GPS-guided drone to deliberately go into controlled airspace without also jamming GPS -- and that would piss off too many people. And if that fails, really determined bad guy/idiot could put together an inertial guidance setup and *still* get into your airspace.
The only way to be sure is to shoot them down, but that's also impractical. These things are here to stay. I'm not saying I like it anymore than you because, I agree, some fool is going to fly their shiny quadcopter into the intake of a plane during takeoff and kill a bunch of people. I just don't see a way to stop them that's both legal (i.e. respects the safe, legal use of drones for legitimate purposes) and practical (you can't just shoot them all down).
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I live at a marina where the navy stupidly trains their pilots over, despite the fact that over the marina is also a common flight zone for military aircraft coming into the north island runway (coronado, ca). Late at night I have been woken up by unmanned aircraft circling the marina around 2 am. When I moved my boat close to the airport in San Diego, again at 2 am, a military unmanned aircraft circling the harbor very close to the airport (within 100 meters). The planes don't usually fly at 2 am, but it is still a risk.