A man flying his DJI Phantom drone in the DC area this week has inadvertently crashed it on the White House lawn. This has spurred President Obama to call for stricter regulations on domestic UAV's. Obama has asked for regulations to be put in place to ensure that drones "aren't dangerous and that they're not violating people's privacy."
Because of the rapid spread of drone technology, Transport Canada and the FAA in the United States have been scrambling to amend aviation regulations to ensure that they encompass the influx of unmanned aerial vehicles to our skies. This incident will certainly spur these organizations to have an increased focus on development of new regulations as well as enforcement of rules that are already in place.
More Regulations for Drones
President Obama told CNN that "The drone that landed in the White House you buy in Radio Shack, we don't really have any kind of regulatory structure at all for it." While we do have some regulations in both Canada and the United States, there will likely be more coming down the pipe.
Here are some of the general guidelines that are observed for drone flight in Canada and the US currently:
- Do not fly near airports, manned aircraft or restricted fly zones.
- Do not fly your UAV beyond your own line of site.
- Keep your altitude below 400 feet.
- Don't fly near large groups of people.
- Inspect your aircraft before you fly.
- Respect the privacy of others.
Other Incidents
There have been other unsettling drone sightings in the news the past few months. Over a period of a couple of months last fall there were numerous sightings of drones flying over nuclear power plants in France.
“Drone-type machines overflew two nuclear plants during the night. They were detected by police in charge of protecting the plants and staff.” a spokesman reported. The drones "were not neutralised because they did not represent a direct threat” to the nuclear facilities. The spokesman added that these facilities are “designed to withstand a strong earthquake or an airliner crashing into it”.
The Value of Drone Technology
It's likely that drones are here to stay. They have the oppourtunity to become invaluable in areas such as farming, search and rescue and the film industry to mention a few. It's important that we don't abuse this technology and ensure that they don't become primary privacy and security concerns to ensure that we can take advantage of the positives that can come of this.
Getting drunk and crashing an unmanned aerial vehicle into the White House lawn is probably not going to help the reputation of these little drones, but hopefully this is merely an isolated incident. After all, we wouldn't have this beautiful footage of Calgary without them:
