Drone issues at JFK

In the wake of three recent incidents at John F. Kennedy International Airport involving civilian drones — two on Nov. 16 and one on Nov. 19 — Sen. Charles Schumer has called on the Federal Aviation Administration and the Office of Management and Budget to enact new drone regulations.
The Nov. 19 incident involved a JetBlue flight from Savannah, Ga. The pilot reported spotting a drone when both aircraft were about two miles from the runway. On Nov. 16, authorities say, a Virgin Atlantic flight from London reported a drone sighting while the jet was flying at 3,000 feet. Also that day, a Delta flight from San Diego reported a drone near one of its wings.
According to Schumer, federal bureaucracy has stood in the way of drone rules, and the FAA and OMB need to establish new regulations to keep airspace safe. “With the three recent incidents …, it’s clear that commercial drone use has crossed over from unregulated to potentially deadly,” he said in a prepared statement. “Drones are an important technology for business, law enforcement, agriculture and more, but the lack of clear rules about small drones, the difference between commercial and a hobby drone, and how and where they can be used, is creating a serious threat to New Yorkers’ safety.”
The Town-Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement Committee’s executive director, Kendall Lampkin, expressed interest in Schumer’s push for controls on drones. “I think it is full of good intention and great ideas,” he said. “There is something to his request for drone regulation, as I think it is a matter of time before something more serious could happen in one of the busiest airspaces in the world. This is scary.”
TVASNAC is a Town of Hempstead organization focused on ensuring that aircraft noise is at a safe level for residents. Its members include residents of several villages near JFK.

Len Schaier, founder of the organization Quiet Skies over North Hempstead, which supports citizens’ and elected officials’ aircraft-noise-mitigation efforts, said he thought that Schumer alone wouldn’t make a difference, but the senator did the right thing by calling attention to the issue. “The FAA and commercial airlines, they make the difference,” Schaier said. “They’re the ones who need to determine what guidelines and regulations need to be made. It’s a serious issue.”
Lampkin said he thought there should be fines for violators and designated drone-free areas. “There should be some sort of civil penalty, like what was done with the laser pointers people were pointing into the skies a few years ago,” he said. “There are the planes that fly low over Rockaway Turnpike, or near apartment complexes, for example, that could be a designated no-drone zone.”
In 2012, the FAA’s Modernization and Reform Act was passed, which defined a special rule for model aircraft. The federal law prohibited unmanned hobby or commercial aircraft, such as drones, from being used in a way that might interfere with manned aircraft. The law called for the FAA to implement a plan for unmanned aircraft similar to drones by September 2015. A recent inspector general’s report stated that the FAA might not meet the deadline.
Schumer urged the FAA and OMB to move forward with drone regulations and “get them out the door immediately.”

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