LINDEN, NJ — Drones have been sighted in the skies above New Jersey. Is it aliens? Are they here to spy on us? Have they been sent by Iran or Iraq? It just might be none of the above.
“I think it’s a little bit of mass hysteria,” said Paul Dudley, Linden Airport Management Corp. owner and manager of Linden Airport, in an interview with LocalSource on Friday, Dec. 13. “There is no evidence of any nefarious action by foreign countries. There are advances in technology, which permit the coordinated flight of multiple drones, such as at a recent Super Bowl halftime show.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alexandro Mayorkas told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Dec. 15, “I want to assure the American public that we are on it.”
Drones have been reported above six states – New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio – although sightings began on Monday, Nov. 18, near Morris County, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. They have since been sighted everywhere, including near the Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County and above President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, Somerset County, according to military officials and state lawmakers.
For Dudley, however, he’s not surprised about the increased sightings. Hysteria or not, he says we brought it on ourselves.
“The drone people a few years ago lobbied Congress and got the FAA to permit drones,” he said. “I think it was a rush and will lead to accidents. What many people don’t realize is that drones can operate virtually anywhere, with safety limitations. They have to be below 400 feet and they have to be within eyesight of the operators. They aren’t like military drones that can be operated from a room in the United States to fly in Afghanistan.”
Unfortunately, he thinks drone makers will even find a way around this safety precaution.
“The industry manufacturers have been lobbying to have them operate out of the line of sight, but that hasn’t happened yet,” said Dudley.
He explained that, generally speaking, drones have to be 150 feet over the ground or the highest object in public airspace. If someone flies a drone 150 feet above your house or the highest point on your property, it’s legal. The Supreme Court on numerous occasions has ruled that the FAA has sole control of authority over airspace. No state or municipality may regulate the flight of a drone. Local authority is limited through zoning and where it takes off and lands, but not where it flies.
“Many of the areas that people have been listing as restricted are, in fact, not restricted,” said Dudley. “Only the FAA can designate an area of airspace as restricted or prohibited. The military goes to the FAA. The FAA can act on its own or request a third party. For instance, most nuclear plants have a restriction over them, but not adjacent to them. Prohibition usually applies to airplanes.”
There are four main types of drones: multi-rotor, fixed-wing, single-rotor helicopter and fixed-wing hybrid VTOL. Multi-rotor drones are easy to control and maneuver, and are often used for aerial photography, inspections and recreational flying. They are often lower in price and portable. Fixed-wing drones have longer flight times, can carry heavier payloads and are more stable in the wind. They are often used for mapping, surveying and long-range monitoring. Single-rotor helicopter drones have vertical takeoff and landing and hover flight, and can carry heavy payloads. They are often used for aerial LIDAR – Light Detection and Ranging – laser scanning. Fixed-wing hybrid VTOL drones have VTOL and hover flight, and can carry heavy payloads. They are often used for surveying, mapping, search and rescue, and utility inspection.
Congress intentionally allowed the FAA to allow drones to fly with few limitations to increase the industry, he said, because they didn’t want to stifle the industry. They are continuing to try to remove the line-of-site requirements. They have already issued authorization for several companies to experiment with that.
“They were doing it in Arizona,” said Dudley. “They gave a delivery company, maybe Amazon, permission to experiment with deliveries.
“My understanding is there are trials underway. What delivery companies want to do is make them totally autonomous. What package companies and others are seeking is to get these drones to operate autonomously. They get a program to go somewhere and they do it themselves.”
Not surprisingly, a lot of people are quite angry about the drones. Some have even suggested shooting them out of the sky, but Dudley warns that would be a big mistake.
“Shooting or interfering with a drone acting lawfully can get you in trouble,” he said. “You can be fined by the FAA and penalized for discharging a weapon. If the drone is operating in federal airspace, which is 150 above local property, they are in federal jurisdiction.
“State police power does permit it to operate if a drone is used in a criminal act or a criminal way, such as being used to attack someone or to harm a person or property.”
The reason local, county or even state police cannot enforce such aerospace laws is simple to explain, said Dudley.
“There’s a reason the federal government has sole purview over airspace: because if you had a checkerboard of aircraft control, planes couldn‘t function,” he said. “The government has forced the FAA to have very lax oversight over drones. It’s frustrating to the general public who, with any degree of common sense, cannot understand how a lot of these operations can be permitted or, worse, are unregulated.”
Dudley said there are many legitimate uses for drones, which is also why the FAA was directed to reduce restrictions for their operations. They are used for surveying, mapping, real estate mapping, law enforcement and hobbyist entertainment.
“People fly kites, people fly model airplanes, people fly drones,” he said.
“Unfortunately, I think it’s going to take a serious accident or fatality with a drone collision with either an occupied aircraft or someone on the ground before Congress maybe relents and allows more appropriate regulations.”
As the owner and operator of Linden Airport, Dudley says he sees the danger drones can create for planes, pilots and passengers, and it’s something that greatly concerns him.
“We’ve had people using drones just outside the airport, which had the potential to interfere with landing and departing aircraft,” he said “One of these days, an aircraft is going to hit one of these drones and someone is going to get killed and then the question will be, ‘How could this have happened?’ Anyone can go spend $30 in Walmart and buy a drone. The commercial use of a drone requires the operator to be issued a permit or a license, but that’s only for commercial use. Hobbyists and individuals are notorious for exceeding altitude limits and in areas that are inappropriate.
“Someone can fly 150 over your house all day long.”
Despite the inconvenience and potential danger, Dudley says he doesn’t see drones going away anytime soon, especially with the amount of money that can be made through this technology.
“When you have multibillion-dollar companies lobbying to be released from regulations, the successful effect of the lobbying efforts has never been more evident than in the relaxation of the regulations of drones,” he said.
“The future, in their view, is to increase profitability by cutting costs, by reducing or eliminating local drivers and local trucks. It would number in the hundreds of billions in profit. Instead of having trucks, just program a drone and it delivers a package. They want to make things better and quicker for the consumer, but it’s really to make things cheaper and more profitable for the business. That’s called business. Think of the money these companies would save with no people. A balance needs to be struck between safety, privacy and convenience.”
Dudley offers one solution to the dangers of drones: geofencing.
“They’re looking at different methods of geofencing, which is where you put a database into the operating section of the drone that fences off certain areas,” he said. “You could keep it from operating in certain areas, as does altitude limitations. The problem with altitude limitations with these drones is actually knowing what the altitude limitation is. It’s 400 feet over open ground, but it’s 400 feet over the highest building. The real problem is there are irresponsible hobbyists who operate these drones to invade people’s privacy or endanger the flying public and people on the ground. There’s a weight limit of approximately 50 pounds for noncommercial drones. What happens if it falls out of the sky from 400 feet?”
The present technology and the way they are currently operating in our airspace system is a risk to personal property and privacy, said Dudley. He insists they need to be better regulated. As a pilot, licensed to fly helicopters, airplanes and seaplanes for 42 years, he said he is much more concerned than he’s ever been.
He does, however, believe drones can eventually become another useful part of society, but Dudley worries it will not be fast enough for some people, leading to accidents or death.
“With improvements in technology and smarter regulation, ultimately, they will be integrated into everyday life, hopefully safely, just like automobiles,” he said. “The difference is it took the automobile 120 years and there are still accidents. Drones have only been around in the blink of an eye by comparison.
“At the end of the day, better public information and reasonable regulation is needed at the federal level. Otherwise, eventually, one of these drones is going to be swallowed by an aircraft taking off or landing somewhere.”
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