Councilmen Introduce Bills Strongly Regulating UAV Use in NYC

SternisheFan passes on this excerpt from an Ars Technica article: On Wednesday Councilman Dan Garodnick introduced a bill to the New York City council seeking to ban all use of drones except those operated by police officers who obtain warrants. A second, parallel bill introduced by councilman Paul Vallone would place more stringent restrictions on drone use but stop short of banning drones for hobbyists and companies altogether. Both bills have been passed to the city's committee on public safety. An all-out ban on drones within the metropolis would be a quite wide-reaching step, especially as the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) seems poised to adopt more permissive rules, with respect to commercial interests in particular. Earlier this year, the FAA formally granted six Hollywood companies exemptions to drone ban rules. A couple of months later, the FAA granted similar exemptions for construction site monitoring and oil rig flare stack inspections. The article explains that Vallone's bill is less restrictive, and rather than propose an outright ban "lists 10 instances where operating a UAV would be illegal, including at night, out of the operator's eyesight, or above 400 ft high. Outside of those conditions, hobbyists and commercial interests would be free to fly drones."

Comments

FAA has sole jurisdiction

[gavron]

In the United States the Federal Aviation Administration is the entity with jurisdiction over all airspace SURFACE to SPACE*

This has been discussed on slashdot so many times in the last year wrt drones and FAA authority that it's beating a dead horse.

NY Councilmen can posture and mumble and pass laws all day long but they have no authority over the air.

E

* Note that this includes surface to 400ft which some people believe is magically exempt from regulation... except the FAA has recently shown it's not.