New FAA rules get UAS technology closer to takeoff
The FAA recently announced major regulatory proposals that will make commercial drone use easier and safer.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s Feb. 13th announcement regarding proposed new regulations for using commercial drones — also known as unmanned aerial systems (UAS) or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) — is an important development for property & casualty insurance companies as the industry is among the top users of commercial drones, according to the FAA’s aerospace forecast for fiscal years 2018-2038.
Over the past three years, the number of insurance companies using drones to perform inspections and to adjust claims has increased substantially.
The new rule proposals would remove the existing prohibitions against operating drones over people and at night; however, drones will be required to have external FAA registration numbers visible.
Despite the apparent progress, the recently released proposals don’t necessarily imply that the FAA has crossed the finish line with these safety and security regulations, as it has asked the public for its input on the matter.
Much-needed workaround
Currently, insurers and other drone users cannot fly their drones over people, making flights over homes and commercial buildings for inspections and claims adjusting very limited and difficult.
The new proposed rules would allow drones weighing 0.55 pounds or less to fly over people. Heavier drones may do the same if the manufacturer can verify to the FAA that the drone was designed to have an impact force below a defined level and/or that the drone meets defined FAA operational requirements that make injury unlikely and minimal. Drone operations at night would be permissible with proper operator training and on-board lighting.
The FAA’s proposal requiring the placement of visible external registration numbers has everything to do with safety. Existing rules require registration that can be noted anywhere on the aircraft, including internally. The proposed change is requested as a response to the law enforcement community and its security concerns about the risk a concealed explosive device poses to first responders who would have to open a compartment to find the registration number.
Insurer challenges remain
Altogether, these proposals are very positive developments in the long-awaited FAA rule-making process. But there remain some significant regulatory impediments to insurers’ commercial drone use. The FAA still prohibits operations beyond the visual line of sight of the operator, which limits operations to open local areas.
There also are serious privacy-related issues that remain to be addressed in the determinations of the relative authorities of the FAA and state and local authorities.
While these new proposed rules will enable increased insurer drone operations, they will not be finalized and officially enacted until the FAA adopts a number of unpublished rules related to remote drone identification.
The interim rule on registration is effective Feb. 25, 2019, but the proposed rules have a 60-day comment period after which the FAA may publish final rules.
The final rules for over-people and at-night operations, however, are specifically conditioned on the FAA enactment of as-yet published proposed rules for remote drone identification. It is anyone’s guess when the FAA will even propose these remote drone ID rules.
So once again, insurers, along with other commercial drone users, remain at the mercy of bureaucratic government timelines.
Tom Karol (tkarol@namic.org) is federal general counsel for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. These opinions are the author’s own.
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