Wireless carriers delay 5G rollout near airports amid safety concerns; smaller airports could be more susceptible

AT&T and Verizon are launching their 5G (fifth generation) cellular service today, but have agreed to delay the rollout near some airports amid concerns that the new technology could interfere with some airplanes' navigational systems. Smaller and rural airports may be disproportionately affected, since 5G tech is more likely to interfere with old altimeters in the smaller planes that use them, CBS News reports. Other nations have rolled out 5G networks without issue, but 5G towers in the rural U.S. are permitted to emit stronger signals than those in other countries.

The Federal Aviation Administration and major airlines have repeatedly warned wireless carriers that 5G signals could interfere with older altimeters, critical instruments that measure a plane's altitude. AT&T and Verizon delayed the rollout twice in the past month or so, but said that regulators and airlines have had years to prepare for 5G, Niraj Chokshi and David McCabe report for The New York Times.

The FAA will allow planes with newer, more accurate altimeters to operate around 5G, but planes with older altimeters won't be allowed to make landings under low-visibility conditions. Airlines canceled or delayed flights at dozens of U.S. airports today in response to the rollout, CBS reports. Reuters has an excellent explainer on 5G and whether it threatens airline safety.

Tough pilot requirements, other concerns will slow growth of drone journalism, expert says

By Al Cross
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

MINNEAPOLIS -- The use of drones for journalism is likely to be limited mainly to large news organizations for a while because of the requirements for a license to pilot unmanned aircraft, and adoption may be slow, an expert in the field said during a session at the national journalism educators' convention Thursday.

University of Nebraska professor Matt Waite with drones

Matt Waite, a journalism professor at the University of Nebraska, said he sees "a culture of caution in newsrooms," which don't want to be test cases in an area of law that remains largely untested by courts. He said unmanned aircraft are "a gray area a lot of media attorneys are uncomfortable with."

Waite is holding an overbooked "bootcamp" next weekend to prepare about 60 would-be drone pilots for the Federal Aviation Administration exam. He said the test material includes "a lot of minutiae" that are unrelated to unmanned aircraft. "It is a lot of stuff, and I'm afraid it is going to chase off too many journalists."

But he said as more organizations use drones and an insurance market for them is stabilized, that will encourage more usage. The images available are amazing, said Katie Culver, a professor of journalism ethics at the University of Wisconsin.

Culver said that in debates over drones, news organizations haven't been as aggressive as they should be in speaking up for their First Amendment right to gather news and information.

Waite, Culver and Jacksonville University journalism professor Courtney Barclay appeared at the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications in Minneapolis. They discussed not only the legalities surrounding unmanned aircraft, but the ethics.

"Ethics has to start with safety," Waite said, noting that the recently issued federal regulations prohibit flying drones over people.

Culver said she fears many newsrooms will "default to technological determinism" and do what the technology allows, limiting their ethical thinking to possible consequences: What happens if X happens? She said newsrooms are aware of privacy concerns but tend to think of them more in legal terms than ethical terms, and many are more concerned about "getting what is interesting to the public rather than what's in the public interest."

An important question, Culver said, is "What are drones going to do to our credibility as journalists?" She said there is "pretty widely documented public suspicion of civilian drones," with about two-thirds of the population saying they will make things worse and one-third expecting better.

Culver suggested that news organizations follow the example of the Gannett Co. newspapers in Wisconsin and discuss the issue with "focus groups" of citizens.

Waite said most people probably don't know that anyone can legally take and publish a picture of anyone on a street, but state laws may eventually prohibit such photography or video from unmanned aircraft below a 500-foot altitude. "It's important for journalists to understand that use of that technology may be transformative in the public's mind."

Jane Kirtley of the University of Minnesota, moderator of the panel, said some state "ag-gag" laws designed to shield agricultural operations from public scrutiny have been extended to include drones.

Waite said, "Agriculture is talking out of both sides of sides of their mouth," wanting few restrictions on drones for farming but blocking others from flying over farms without permission, as was attempted in the Nebraska legislature.

He said agriculture is much more important to the unmanned-aircraft industry than journalism is: "I've often described journalism as the bug speck on the windshield when it comes to drones."

FAA's assertion of authority over drones rankles local officials, who cite urban-rural differences

University of Georgia photo

The Federal Aviation Administration is headed for clashes with local and state officials over drones, over which the FAA claims exclusive authority. "Local and state lawmakers, concerned about the safety and privacy risks that drones pose, have been passing rules about the machines at a rapid pace . . . with many of the regulations placing tough restrictions on areas to fly and clamping down on the use of drones to snoop on neighbors," but now the FAA says many local or state rules wouldn't stand up to court challenges because Congress gave it power over aviation, reports Cecilia Kang of The New York Times.

"The intervention of the FAA is now frustrating local lawmakers, who complain that the agency wants them to back off their own rules—even as it is seen as too lenient on drone users," Kang writes. "Lawmakers said the agency’s drone rules did not go as far as many states and municipalities that are explicitly banning flights within cities and over homes, strengthening privacy protections and imposing steep criminal and financial penalties on violators. As a result, some state and city officials are digging in to defend their own drone regulations."

In that battle, local officials are opposed by tech companies, which "want a light touch by regulators to help give their drone efforts the widest possible latitude," Kang reports. "Companies such as Amazon and Google have hired dozens of lobbyists over the last year to visit aviation committees on Capitol Hill, explaining their plans to deliver packages and create entirely new segments of entertainment and sports."

Daniel R. Garodnick, one of the New York City Council members who proposed an ordinance to ban most drone flights in the city, require users to get licenses and insurance, and make violations criminal misdemeanors, says the FAA rules fail to distinguish between urban and rural areas. “New York City is different from the cornfields of Iowa,” he said. “That should be obvious to everyone.”

Drug dealers and terrorists using drones; unmanned aircraft are hard to detect or stop

Drones are becoming the hot new toy for criminals and terrorists because they are unmanned and difficult to detect and stop, Jack Nicas reports for The Wall Street Journal. "Law-enforcement officials have discovered criminals smuggling drugs and other contraband across the U.S. border and into prisons using the types of consumer drones increasingly popular with entrepreneurs and hobbyists. And authorities in the U.S., Germany, Spain and Egypt have foiled at least six potential terrorist attacks with drones since 2011." (Associated Press photo: Police last week in Tijuana, Mexico found this crashed drone that they suspect was carrying drugs from Mexico to the U.S.)

Features that have made drones attractive for businesses and photographers—they are small, easy to fly and can capture high-definition images—also make them a potentially powerful tool for criminals and terrorists, Nicas writes. "U.S. authorities are worried that the problem is growing and that drones could be modified to mount attacks with explosives or chemical weapons, according to a presentation this month by federal intelligence and security officials to their counterparts in law enforcement and people who oversee critical infrastructure."

Earlier this week a drone crashed onto the White House lawn. While the operator said he lost control of the drone, the incident raises safety concerns about the inability to "track drones to protect potential targets like critical infrastructure, government buildings, prisons and crowded stadiums," Nicas writes. That has led to a growing industry working to build devices to detect incoming drones and alert authorities. (Read more)

Drones could cut costs in searching for oil and gas field hazards; technology still lacking

Drones could significantly cut the costs of searching by air for hazards in abandoned or forgotten oil and gas fields, Laura Legere reports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Currently, helicopters equipped with magnetic sensors are used to fly over plots in Pennsylvania at a cost of about $2,000 per hour. Unmanned aircraft can do the same job at a projected cost of $3. (Gazette photo by Darrell Sapp: This Identified Technologies drones is customized to collect images, data or gas readings) 

Right now the wait is on for someone to develop a magnetic sensor just as sensitive as the full-sized helicopter’s but small, light and energy-efficient enough to fit on the remote-controlled machine without hindering its flight, Legere writes. Richard Hammack, a physical scientist for the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pittsburgh, told Legere, “Companies are developing now much smaller magnetic sensors that are lighter, and they have less power draw. As soon as that’s developed we’re going to give them a ride.”

Lux Research released a report in October that "found that the market for commercial uses of drones will grow to $1.7 billion in 2025, with oil and gas applications as one of the largest segments—worth $247 million—after agriculture, hobbyists and utilities," Legere writes.

While the oil and gas industry waits for technology to catch up, they are also waiting for the Federal Aviation Administration to release rules for commercial drone use. The National Transportation Safety Board ruled in November that drones are aircraft and are subject to existing aviation laws. Until FAA rules are put in place, most commercial use of drones remains illegal. Rules are not expected until September. (Read more)

FAA issues commercial drone permits to an agriculture business and a real estate company

The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday issued commercial drone permits to a pair of agriculture and real estate companies, Jack Linshi reports for Time. "Exemptions to the ban on commercial drones were made for Advanced Aviation Solutions in Spokane, Wash., for 'crop scouting' and to Douglas Trudeau of Tierra Antigua Realty in Tucson, Ariz., for enhanced aerial footage of buildings, according to an FAA statement." (Associated Press photo by Jeff Chiu)

"Advanced Aviation Solutions will use a 1.5-pound eBee drone to take photographs of farm fields for measurement and inspection purposes, while Trudeau will use a Phantom 2 Vision+ quadcopter to 'enhance academic community awareness and augment real estate listing videos,' the FAA said," Linshi writes. "Among other rules, the permits require commercial drones to have an on-the-ground 'pilot' and an observer and that the drone must not leave the operator’s line of sight."

The FAA has granted commercial drone permits to 11 companies in filmmaking, oil and gas and landfill industries, Linshi writes. The National Transportation Safety Board ruled in November that drones are aircraft and are subject to existing aviation laws. Until FAA rules are put in place, most commercial use of drones remains illegal. Rules are not expected until September. (Read more)

FAA fears Santa will be delivering drone aircraft to inexperienced and/or irresponsible users

AP photo by John Locher

The Federal Aviation Administration is playing Scrooge this Christmas, as agency officials fear that one of the hot new presents under trees will be drones, aggravating already complicated issue of safety in the skies, Craig Whitlock reports for The Washington Post.

In anticipation of a large number of of drones being given as presents this year, the FAA and the drone industry on Monday "kicked off a public awareness campaign to urge novice drone operators to pay attention to safety and not do dumb things such as flying too close to passenger planes, buzzing crowds of bystanders on the ground or flying that new ­remote-control helicopter while drunk," Whitlock writes.

"The campaign is dubbed 'Know Before You Fly' and includes videos instructing people how to 'stay off the naughty list' when playing with their new gifts," Whitlock writes. "Among the basics: Don’t fly drones above 400 feet, within five miles of an airport or near a stadium." FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told reporters, “This is an issue of growing concern. This newer and more powerful technology is affordable to more people, yet many are not familiar with the rules of flying.”

The National Transportation Safety Board ruled last month that drones are aircraft and are subject to existing aviation laws. Until FAA rules are put in place, most commercial use of drones remains illegal.  Officials fear unregulated drones use could  lead to "a modern version of the Wild West." In June the National Park Service banned drones in all parks and areas it manages. In August a tourist crashed a drone into Yellowstone National Park. Also in August drones were banned over the Appalachian Trail and in parks in Utah and Colorado, and a drone was reported flying over an NFL game. The FAA has a Sept. 30, 2015 deadline to set rules for commercial use.

Safety concerns keeping commercial drone operators from going about their business

The future has arrived in a stirring debate of controversy. Drones offer a cheaper, easier and more productive way to conduct many businesses—from agriculture to journalism to the film industry to fighting fires to dozens of other areas. (Air Dog photo)

But safety concerns have put the future of commercial drone use in the hands of the Federal Aviation Administration, which has a Sept. 30, 2015 deadline to set rules for commercial use. The National Transportation Safety Board ruled last month that drones are aircraft and are subject to existing aviation laws. Until FAA rules are put in place, most commercial use of drones remains illegal.

"If the rules are reasonable, more than 70,000 jobs could be created within three years, says Mario Mairena, head of government relations for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, reports The Economist. The organization believes that "commercial benefits from drones for the American economy are worth more than $10 billion a year."

The problem is that many commercial operators have grown impatient waiting for official rules and have flown drones whenever and wherever they liked, which has led to crashes and several near misses, Gregory A. Hall reports for The Courier Journal in Louisville. 

FAA "released statistics to several media outlets in recent weeks in response to public records requests that showed a report of pilots seeing drones roughly daily during an almost-six-month period beginning June 1," Hall writes. "Using that data, The Washington Post calculated 25 near misses."

University of Louisville assistant professor Adrian Lauf told Hall that near-collisions are "definitely on the increase and there are a lot of people that now have access to these aircraft. Not as many of them are smart about it, and they don't realize the consequences. And that's perhaps one of the reasons why the FAA's probably going to require a pilot's license. . . . they have no other way of verifying that a UAV pilot has the knowledge of how airspace has to be handled."

One solution is to create more collision-avoidance technology, reports The Economist. "Passenger aircraft carry transponders that relay their position to ground radar. But an aircraft-type transponder would be too heavy for many small drones to carry, and with plastic or styrofoam airframes, they might not be detected with radar."

GPS-based devices that are part of a system called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast could be the answer, reports The Economist. "These devices repeatedly broadcast not just the aircraft’s position but other data, including its flight path. They also receive similar co-ordinates from any nearby aircraft. ADS-B is part of a new generation of air-traffic management being installed in America, Europe and elsewhere."

FAA drone rules will hamper rural operators; reports of unsafe drone use on the rise

When the Federal Aviation Administration releases its proposed rules for drone use, rural pilots will be facing a long, arduous road to be able to fly legally fly, Jordan Golson reports for Wired. The rules, expected by the end of the year, "will apply to drones under 55 pounds, limit flights to daytime hours, under 400 feet, and within the pilot’s line of sight. They would also require all drone operators to acquire a pilot’s license from the FAA. Not a special, drone-focused license, but the kind you need to actually get in a plane and fly it."

"In more rural areas, however, there simply aren’t that many things to fly into," Golson writes. "Apart from town centers and highways, most of the middle of the country is filled up with wide open spaces. That makes the onerous process of getting a license—including dozens of hours of work with an expensive flight instructor, a medical examination and lots of classroom time—seem less necessary when the only things you might hit are cows and stalks of corn."

"The 400-foot ceiling and line of sight requirements are also impractical for many possible drone uses in rural areas," Golson writes. "For example, electric utilities routinely use helicopters to inspect their long-haul high-voltage power lines, to check they’re in working order and make sure trees haven’t grown too close to them. Farmers could use the unmanned aircraft to inspect crops, and ranchers could keep an eye on their herds—over thousands of acres. This is the kind of work drones are perfect for, but only if they can fly over long distances and far above the 200-foot towers."  

With no rules currently in place and drones readily for sale, the friendly skies are turning chaotic, as more and more reports of unsafe flying keep coming in, Nick Wingfield reports for The New York Times. "In recent months, drone pilots have tried to smuggle contraband into prisons and disrupt sporting events at stadiums. Animal rights groups have turned to drones to stalk hunters as the hunters stalk wildlife. And in France, more than a dozen illegal flights over nuclear power plants have unnerved the authorities."

"The antics are forcing public safety officials to look at the air above them, generally thought safe and secure, as a place for potential trouble," Wingfield writes. "And for groups pushing drones as legitimate business tools, the high jinks are an unexpected and unwelcome headache—one, they fear, that will bolster a push by regulators to keep a tight leash on the machines."

Patrick Egan, a consultant on commercial drone projects and editor at sUAS News, a drone news site, told Wingfield, “It’s now in the hands of all types of people—good people, bad people, tricksters, pranksters, kids. All hell is going to break loose as far as the shenanigans that are perpetrated with drones.” (Read more)

National Transportation Safety Board declares drones are aircraft, giving FAA regulatory power

The National Transportation Safety Board ruled on Tuesday that drones are aircraft and are subject to existing aviation laws, giving the Federal Aviation Administration regulatory power over the industry, Jack Nicas reports for The Wall Street Journal. The board also overturned a federal judge's ruling in March that dismissed a $10,000 FAA fine on a Swiss drone operator for using a drone to film a commercial for the University of Virginia’s medical school.

"The NTSB ruling is a victory for the FAA, an agency that has struggled to regulate the rapidly increasing use of drones in U.S. skies," Nicas writes. "Technology has made nonmilitary drones smaller, cheaper, more powerful and easier to fly in recent years. The FAA allows recreational use of the devices but virtually bans their use for commercial purposes. Many commercial users have ignored that policy, and some were emboldened by the March ruling that dismissed the FAA’s first fine for drone use."

FAA is expected to propose rules for drones by the end of the year, but it could take up to two years for the rules to be finalized, Nicas writes. (Read more)

College student creates an 'ambulance drone' equipped with a defibrillator

A lack of ambulances in rural areas has been a constant concern. Wait times often stretch to critical points, and lives hang in the balance. Many rural areas, such as in Iowa, Kansas and Kentucky—where a woman died earlier this year because the county skimped on ambulance services—are faced with a shortage of ambulances and personnel and often rely on volunteers during emergencies. (Getty Images by Bas Czerwinksi)

A recent college graduate says drones are the answer to a shortage of emergency services, Matt McFarland reports for The Washington Post. Alec Momont, whose family friend died of cardiac arrest because an ambulance arrived too late, concentrated his final project at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands on an "ambulance drone" that could carry emergency supplies quickly to those in need.

"Momont developed a drone with a defibrillator built in," McFarland writes. "The drone is capable of traveling at 62 mph, but the battery lasts for only 10 minutes. He says a network of 3,000 drones could canvas the Netherlands, each drone responding to 12 square kilometers within a minute. He envisions the drones being stationed on telephone poles. The nearest drone could be summoned following a 911 call and flown—either autonomously or controlled by a human—to the site."

"Once the drone lands, a panel is opened up, and the defibrillator paddles are removed," McFarland writes. The drone, which weighs 8.8 pounds and includes a separate battery for the defibrillator, which is capable of delivering up to 50 shocks, includes a camera so that an emergency technician watching from afar can offer personalized advice."

Momont also envisions a drone with a heat sensor that can locate people, such as a skier trapped in an avalanche, McFarland writes. "The Belgian graduated from his Master’s degree program Tuesday and now is focused on finding more funding to make his dream a reality. He estimated a $19,000 price tag for each drone and noted that additional technology such as a Sonar system still needs [to be] factored in." (Read more)

Weather researchers say drones could be valuable tools before, during and after storms

With winter approaching, and some weather experts predicting another brutal winter, weather researchers say drones could be the answer to providing better and more timely information on storms such as those associated with the Great Lakes shoreline, Cary Giles reports for the Great Lakes Echo, a service of the Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University. (NOAA photo: NASA’s unmanned Global Hawk is used in hurricane research, but can only be flown over water)

"These lake effect snows happen when 'cold air masses move over warm lake waters,' according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration," Giles writes. "They are common in the Great Lakes region from November to February."

"Derrick Herndon, a research specialist at a satellite center at the University of Wisconsin, said unmanned aircraft would be useful to research and predict this type of weather," Giles writes. "Lake effect snows happen in only a few hours, and they need to be reported with accuracy, Herndon said. Drones can get a full picture of the temperature and moisture of the region to help determine if they are likely."

Jeff Masters, the director of meteorology at the Weather Underground, a service that predicts weather for major cities worldwide, said drones also could be used to assess storm damage. Masters told Giles, “Another ideal use would be in damage surveys immediately following a major tornado or hurricane. The drone could photograph the damage, advise first responders on how to avoid blocked roads and pinpoint areas most in need of search and rescue efforts.”

The Federal Aviation Administration has not approved drones for such uses, Giles writes. But they should, weather researchers say. Herndon said satellites are useful because they measure cloud height, temperature, water vapor, winds in the atmosphere and sea surface temperature, but drones can get closer than a satellite. Herndon told Giles, “Laws often don’t keep up with the technology.” (Read more)

MIT researchers create program to let drones monitor own health; drone flies over NFL game

Some businesses envision a future where drones are used to deliver packages to consumers. In anticipation of that day, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology "have created a program that lets robotic flyers monitor their own 'health' midflight," Tanya Lewis reports for Live Science. (MIT illustration)

The program allows drones "to be able to handle conditions such as high winds, fuel shortages and potential sensor errors," Lewis writes. "The team also figured out an efficient way for the drone to calculate all possible routes to its destination before takeoff, so it can avoid potential collisions." To do this, they used a decision tree method in which each branching point includes the probability of an outcome occurring. Drones can then make decisions such as finding the nearest charging station if they are running low on fuel. (Read more)

Some are concerned about irresponsible drone operators flying with no regard to safety. Earlier this month a tourist crashed a drone into Yellowstone National Park. Safety was also a concern Tuesday night during an NFL preseason game in Charlotte when a drone flew over the stadium during the fourth quarter, Mark Washburn reports for the Charlotte Observer. No one was injured, and the operator was detained—but released—with all information forwarded to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Tourist crashes drone into Yellowstone National Park hot spring; damage could be irreversible

While more people are using drones, including farmers and journalism programs, rural journalists, the energy industry and law enforcement, concern has grown about irresponsible or inexperienced operators flying drones with no regard for any laws or regulations, which has led to a few near misses between drones and planes. Those concerns were brought to light on Wednesday when a tourist "at Yellowstone National Park crashed a camera-equipped drone into its largest hot spring, possibly damaging the prized geothermal feature, a park official said on Wednesday," Laura Zuckerman reports for Reuters. (Your Take photo by Todd Atherly: Yellowstone's Grand Prismatic hot spring)

"The incident follows the crash earlier this summer of a drone into a marina at Yellowstone Lake and a string of radio-controlled aircraft violations at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming," Zuckerman writes. "The National Park Service in June announced a ban on so-called unmanned aerial vehicles, but officials say premier national parks in the U.S. West are reporting a sharp rise in the number of drones buzzing bison and boaters." The park is trying to determine how to extract the drone from the hot spring, which is 370 feet in diameter and 121 feet deep, without damaging the site.

One of the problems is that the FAA has yet to announce any regulations for drone use and is expected to miss a September 2015 deadline set by Congress "because of technical and regulatory obstacles that are unlikely to be resolved anytime soon," Craig Whitlock reports for The Washington Post. Without any regulations, and with a federal judge in March dismissing an FAA fine against a drone user, commercial drone use appears to be legal below 400 feet. But regulating any drone use has been difficult for the FAA to accomplish.

Independent journalist says drones can be used to skirt 'ag-gag' laws and obtain aerial footage

An independent journalist says he has found a way to get around ag-gag laws by using drones to fly "over large livestock operations to document animal welfare problems and pollution," Peggy Lowe reports for NPR. Based in Washington, D.C., Will Potter has raised $75,000 to buy drones and other equipment. He told Lowe, "I was primarily motivated by what's happening outside of those closed doors, but is still invisible and hidden from the public spotlight. In particular, I was motivated by seeing these of farm pollution, of waste lagoons, of sprawling industrial operations."

Agricultural groups are not happy with Potter's plans, Lowe writes. Emily Meredith, a spokeswoman for Animal Agriculture Alliance, a livestock industry group, told Lowe, "It's unfortunate that the media and others see Mr. Potter and other detractors and activists as having more expertise than the folks with their boots on the ground every day, growing and raising our food. It's even more unfortunate that people contribute to campaigns like this on Kickstarter instead of investing in any of the other myriad of worthy causes—including working to end hunger."

It's not clear whether or not using the drones would be against the law, since commercial drone operations remain a contentious subject, Lowe writes. Potter said "he will focus on the states where anti-whistleblower laws are being debated. He pledges to share his findings in an e-book and a short documentary. But Potter admits the drones he plans to deploy won't be able to get the same, close-up footage of livestock operations that groups like Mercy for Animals and the Humane Society obtained through undercover investigations. Instead, he says, he'll focus on showing the magnitude of the operations and the pollution they generate." (Read more)

FAA to miss another deadline on drone regulations

News-media and other commercial drone operators waiting for the Federal Aviation Administration to release regulations on the unmanned aerial vehicles will have to keep waiting. An internal government audit found that the FAA, which has already missed several deadlines, will miss the September 2015 deadline set by Congress "because of technical and regulatory obstacles that are unlikely to be resolved anytime soon," Craig Whitlock reports for The Washington Post.

"The FAA is significantly behind schedule in drawing up rules and standards to ensure that drones are airworthy, that pilots are trained properly and that their aircraft won’t interfere with other air traffic, the Transportation Department’s inspector general concluded in a highly critical audit," Whitlock writes. "The report said the FAA has so many hurdles to confront that it is unclear when — or if — remotely controlled aircraft can be safely integrated into U.S. airspace."

The audit said “safety risks will persist,” such as several reported cases of near misses between drones and planes, until the FAA can establish a set of rules, Whitlock writes. A Post investigation uncovered 49 military drone crashes since 2001 and two dozen civilian drone crashes since 2009, Whitlock writes. (Post map)

Meanwhile, drones have been used by farmers and journalism programs, rural journalists, the energy industry and law enforcement, and drone use was recently banned in national parks.

The FAA, which said three years ago it would issue regulations, said it plans to regulate small drones that weigh less than 55 pounds and fly below 400 feet, Whitlock writes. "The FAA has imposed a de facto ban on commercial drones until it can sort out the rules of the sky" and has only issued two commercial permits, both in Alaska, but there is fear that many operators continue to fly without regard for safety, and have shown an unwillingness to follow any rules. (Read more)

Park service bans drones, at least temporarily

The National Park Service has banned, temporarily, the use of drones in all parks and areas it manages "until we can determine the most appropriate policy that will protect park resources and provide all visitors with a rich experience," NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis said in a news release.

The service had already banned drones in several parks because of visitor complaints, wildlife harassment and safety concerns. It cited examples, such as drones interrupting "a quiet sunset" at the Grand Canyon and the evening presentation at Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

Juneau paper to use drone; publisher says it will respect privacy when taking photos, videos

The daily newspaper in Alaska's capital last week introduced the newest member of its staff—an unmanned aerial vehicle, more commonly known as a drone. The Juneau Empire plans to use it for gathering news and for visual storytelling, Melissa Griffiths reports for the paper. Publisher Rustan Burton told her, “It gives us the power to look at things from different angles we’ve never seen before . . . It’s a completely new perspective on things they’ve seen before, seen on a regular basis." (Empire photo by Michael Penn)

Local residents won't have to fear about invasion of privacy, Burton said. He told Griffiths, “We won’t be floating through people’s backyards. We’ll use discretion and be very sensitive about the privacy of individuals. We’ll follow every law there is. And we’re just going to be ethical with it.” The Empire has already used the drone to make a series of short videos, which are available on the newspaper's website. (Read more)

The story didn't include the legal details involved in using a commercial drone. The Federal Aviation Administration has said drone use is illegal but appears to lack the ability to stop it because a federal judge dismissed an FAA fine, making it legal to fly a commercial drone at altitudes below 400 feet. But debate continues after a plane pilot said in March that he nearly collided with a drone flying well above 400 feet, showing that some drone users don't follow the rule.

As a near-miss inflames debate, uncontrolled use of drones is 'a modern version of the Wild West'

The number of drones flying the friendly skies is increasing. In March, a commercial jet pilot reported that he nearly collided with a drone, inflaming arguments between the Federal Aviation Administration and drone users about the legality of drone use and what the future holds for unmanned aircrafts, Jack Nicas and Andy Pasztor report for The Wall Street Journal. To make matters worse, some drone users have shown an unwillingness to follow any rules, and the FAA has not served as an effective enforcer. (3D Robotics Inc. drone)

"Some proponents of unmanned aircraft worry that the near-collision could spark a public backlash and perhaps spur U.S. and state regulators to impose tougher restrictions than drone users claim are necessary," Nicas and Pasztor write. "The FAA plans to propose in November, several years later than initially projected, new rules on how small drones could be used legally for commercial purposes. It could take several more years for the rules to become final."

In February the FAA said commercial drone use is illegal, but it doesn't have the ability to enforce the rule. In March, a federal judge dismissed an FAA fine for drone use, and the ruling made it appear that flying commercial drones below 400 feet is legal. Drones have been used in rural journalism, by colleges and law enforcement, and by the energy industry.

Matt Waite, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor who runs a drone-journalism program that got a cease-and-desist letter from the FAA last year, told the Journal that the fear is that the "longer it takes to have the rules of the road in place, the more the technology advances and the cheaper it gets, the closer we get to some knucklehead doing something dumb and hurting someone."

The FAA seems to be allowing drone use in farming because they consider farmers hobbyists, Nicas and Pasztor write. The FAA's attempts to enforce rules have been ineffective. For example, in January the FAA emailed an Orlando drone company that films concerts and television commercials to say they were violating FAA policy. The owner said he ignored the email, and the FAA has yet to follow up.

One federal official told the Journal: "Fewer and fewer people seem deterred by threats. Nobody is asking the FAA how to proceed, so it's turned into a modern version of the Wild West where some people think anything is OK."

The FAA "estimates there could be as many as 7,500 drones in U.S. skies within five years of the new rules. People in the unmanned aircraft industry say that estimate is far too low," Nicas and Pasztor write. Chris Anderson, chief executive of California drone maker 3D Robotics Inc. said "he sells about 2,000 autopilot systems a month to customers around the world who want to build their own drones." Anderson noted that one Chinese company sells at least 10 times that many. (Read more)

Energy industry using drones as monitoring devices

Skycatch photo

Journalists and law enforcement in rural areas are already using drones to obtain hard to reach information. Now the energy industry is following suit.

Skycatch, a year-old start-up based in San Francisco, has raised $3.2 million from Google and other investors and "already signed deals to test its technology with the construction giants Bechtel and DPR; First Solar, a developer of photovoltaic power plants; and SolarCity, a solar panel installer," Todd Woody reports for The New York Times. "Drones from Skycatch and more established companies are monitoring power lines, inspecting oil and gas pipelines, checking wind turbines for defects and pinpointing malfunctioning solar panels."

"Executives at Aeryon Labs, a Canadian company that made headlines for supplying drones to rebels in Libya, say energy is a growth area, as sensor-equipped drones offer a safe, low-cost way to inspect smokestacks, power lines and wind turbines without having to send workers to scale towers or hiring helicopters, which can cost thousands of dollars an hour to operate," Woody writes. "Aeryon has dispatched its drones to look for cracks in wind turbine blades, which can hang hundreds of feet above the ground. BP has deployed Aeryon drones and thermal cameras in Alaska to scan oil pipelines for hot spots that may indicate structural weaknesses."

At remote photovoltaic plants in the desert Southwest, where solar panels can number in the hundreds of thousands, drones can prove more effective in searching for malfunctions than people because the panels "generate a distinctive heat signature as they fail," Woody writes. Some companies have expressed interest in using drones to detect protected wildlife that may wander onto a wind farm or solar power installation, using drones to get the animals safely out or scaring away birds before they get killed by a wind turbine. (Read more)