Drone Traffic

§212(a)(l ). The FAA ignored the Congressional mandate, promulgated new rules in the form of Part 117 of the Federal Aviation Regulations, but left cargo pilots subject to the old provisions of Part 121 based upon a "cost versus benefit analysis.

Brendan Schulman, Esq., with the firm of Kramer, Levin, Naftalis and Frankel, LLP in New York, has embarked on a headlong assault on the FAA’s policy restricting the operation of model aircraft and/or unmanned aircraft systems pursuant to a 2007 FAA Policy Statement published in the Federal Register. Schulman maintains the Policy Statement did not con-form with Section 553 of the Administrative Procedure Act and was not part of the formal rule making process.

On March 6, 2014, Judge Geraghty of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued an Order finding that the FAA could not discipline the commercial operator of an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”) on the theory that the UAV was not an aircraft as the term “aircraft” has historically been defined by the FAA. This issue of FlightWatch will examine the Order issued by Judge Geraghty, an Order from which the FAA appealed on March 7, 2014.