FAA grounds Amazon.com's Prime Air offering, for now

 

 

WASHINGTON — Amazon.com's proposed 30-minute Prime Air offering drone delivery option was grounded Sunday following the Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration proposed framework of regulations governing small unmanned aircraft systems.  

 

The FAA proposal offers safety rules for small UASs (under 55 pounds) conducting non-recreational operations. The rule would limit flights to daylight and visual-line-of-sight operations. The FAA is asking for comments on whether the rules should permit operations beyond line of sight, and if so, what the appropriate limits should be.

 

The rules also address height restrictions, operator certification, optional use of a visual observer, aircraft registration and marking and operational limits. For example, the FAA proposed that a small UAS may not fly over people, except those directly involved with the flight.

 

The visual-line-of-sight operational requirement would eliminate use of drones as delivery devices, however, at least in the immediate future. Amazon.com stated that the proposed rules wouldn’t allow Prime Air to operate in the United States. “The FAA needs to begin and expeditiously complete the formal process to address the needs of our business, and ultimately our customers,” the company stated, as reported by The Wall street Journal. 

 

"We are encouraged by the Administrator’s statement today that FAA is studying beyond visual line of sight operations ... and that the exemption process is available for certain operations beyond the visual line of sight," stated the Small UAV Coalition. "In the meantime, First Person View technology is available now, and is critical to unleashing the power of automation in this space. Until small UAVs are able to go beyond the line of sight, we are not maximizing the technology as other countries already do."

 

“We have tried to be flexible in writing these rules,” stated FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. “We want to maintain today’s outstanding level of aviation safety without placing an undue regulatory burden on an emerging industry.”