Drone News: Pilot Interferes With Helicopter, NASA ASRS Reports, & Legislation Restricting Drones

Post Flight on Community
https://bit.ly/premium-drone-communityWelcome to your weekly UAS
News Update. We have three stories for you this week. Charges for
drone pilot allegedly interfering with a medical helicopter, NASA
ASRS reports on the possible chop list, and New York Legislation
to restrict what drones can be purchased by state agencies.
First up a 64-year-old drone operator in Orange County, Texas,
has been charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly delaying a
medical helicopter flight back in February. According to
12NewsNow, the incident occurred when first responders were
aiding a 3-year-old child who had suffered cardiac arrest after a
near-drowning. A medical helicopter called to transport the child
was reportedly delayed because a drone was flying directly above
it, somewhere between 50 and 100 feet over the helicopter. The
drone pilot was identified, and his device was confiscated. He
now faces a charge of "interfering with public duties," a class B
misdemeanor in Texas, potentially leading to 180 days in jail and
a $2,000 fine. It's unknown if federal charges will follow, but
the FAA takes interference with manned aircraft, especially
emergency services, VERY seriously. Thankfully, the child made a
full recovery. Please don’t be that guy. Next up, this is really
important for the entire aviation community, including us drone
pilots. We have until July 7th – that’s just a few weeks – to
submit comments on the value of two crucial voluntary safety
reporting systems: NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS)
and the Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3RS). The
program provides for pilots, controllers, mechanics and others to
make confidential reports to the ASRS within NASA, insulating the
reports from the FAA. As a result, NASA reports aviation safety
issues in nearly real-time. The big advantage of the report is
that the reporting person can't be subject to FAA enforcement
actions even if a regulation has been broken. That's of course,
if the action is inadvertent and if the report is made within 10
days.And finally, in New York, bill A2237/S3259 has passed the
assembly earlier this week. The bill would restrict what
equipment can be purchased by state and local public safety
departments. This isn’t specific to drones and includes any and
all “HARDWARE, SYSTEMS, DEVICES, SOFTWARE, OR SERVICES”. Waivers
are available, but it’d be better for public safety not to need a
waiver to purchase the best equipment fro the job. As of this
recording, the bill hasn’t passed into law yet, and is going to
the Governor next. So if you’re in NY, please reach out to your
senators, representatives, and contact the Governor's office,
especially if you're in public safety!And on post-flight this
week, we're going to cover Renault, the French car manufacturer
who has partnered with Parrot for a built-in vehicle dock, and
Amazon, which is starting deliveries in San Antonio. Post-flight
is our weekly show where we dive deeper into the news update
items, with more opinionated takes and it is available in the
Premium community at pilotinstitute.com/communityAlright, that's
all we have for you this week. Join us Monday for the live Q and
A on
Monday.https://www.12newsnow.com/article/news/local/orange-county-drone-operator-charged-with-misdemeanor-in-connection-with-delay-of-life-saving-helicopter-flight/502-94b3858e-19f6-45ca-8b94-27ac90c0efd1https://avweb.com/aviation-news/comments-sought-on-blame-free-aviation-incident-reporting/https://droneadvocacyalliance.com/?vvsrc=%2FCampaigns%2F125752%2FRespond