FAA Final Rules on Drones in US Airspace Expected Next Year

The Federal Aviation Administration’s goal is to integrate drones into U.S. airspace while “maintaining the highest levels of safety,” a spokeswoman told us in response to a complaint filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center against the FAA for failing to establish privacy rules for commercial drones (see 1510050053). “Safely integrating UAS [unmanned aircraft systems] into the national airspace system is one of the biggest and most exciting challenges we face,” the FAA said. “We are finalizing our final rule for small unmanned aircraft and will have that out next year,” the FAA said. “Meanwhile, we’ve granted more than 1,700 exemptions to commercial operators through the Section 333 process,” as the agency has successfully done for decades, the spokeswoman said. “These operations are approved and authorized by the FAA so we can ensure the safety of the public,” the FAA said. It didn't respond to questions surrounding EPIC's privacy concerns.