Safety issues could weigh down journalism drone use.

Jarvis, John

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If journalists want to use drones to gather news here in the United States, they need to pay attention to the safety issues the Federal Aviation Administration is studying.

In February, the FAA posted on its website a "Notice of Proposed Rule Making," or NPRM, that invited 60 days of public commentary on how to regulate the non-recreational use of drones operated by the American public. The NPRM's aim is to determine whether "certain unmanned aircraft systems may operate safely in the national airspace system," according to the document--and, if they can, the Secretary of Transportation must then "establish requirements for the safe operation of such aircraft systems in the national airspace system."

Writer Arthur Holland Michel, in a story dated Feb. 16 and posted on the website of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College (dronecenter.bard.edu), took a look at the NPRM and drew up a list of "31 Questions the FAA Wants you to Answer." Here's a sample of the questions asked by Michel, who helped found the center at the Annandale-on-Hudson, New York-based institution in 2012:

* How much money would these rules save the U.S. economy?

* Should drones be allowed to tow objects?

* Should the rules require that very small drones be made out of material that shatter on impact, thus reducing harm to people if they are struck by one?

* Certain drone flight (sic) will require a second person to act as a visual observer, to help the pilot track the drone. Should this visual observer be required to remain within shouting distance of the pilot?

The NPRM allowed the public to weigh in on "absolutely any part of the proposed rules draft," Michel wrote. (An FAA press release about the NPRM can be found online at www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?newsId=18295.)

But when it comes to reporting the news, Matt Waite, a professor of practice at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was most concerned about two other questions Michel posed: "Should drones with advanced safety features that mitigate some of the safety concerns underlying the rules be exempt from certain rules? And how should the FAA determine which drones should be exempt?"

In a March 20 post to his school's Drone Journalism Lab website (www.dronejournalismlab.org), Waite focused on precisely that point as he wrote about how NBC News "very effectively and safely covered the terrible consequences of a tropical cyclone in Vanuatu." Waite notes that almost all of that drone footage was shot over buildings that showed the amount of devastation caused by Cyclone Pam, a Category 5 storm that ravaged the South Pacific republic March 13.

"I understand not allowing flights over concerts, football stadiums or public protests," Waite wrote. If something goes wrong, there's nowhere to crash that isn't going to involve hurting someone. But what if we could mitigate that risk? What if you could add a device to your UAV that would trigger a parachute to deploy and all motors to stop if something went wrong?"

The footage shot by the NBC News drone to document Cyclone Pam's widespread destruction caused no harm to anyone and was vital to help viewers comprehend what had happened there. Other similar drone deployments overseas have been just as safe and effective. But that's not going to be enough to convince federal officials to allow reporters to use them in heavily populated areas here in the United States. Waite notes that "the NPRM document says an operator 'may not operate over any persons not directly involved in the operation' and 'simply prohibits' this. But what does 'over' mean? Literally directly overhead? Or within a certain distance of a person?"

That's the $64,000 question. And the answer is still up in the air.

In a related drone usage note: An NBC News report posted online April 10 noted that the Federal Aviation Administration has approved testing for Amazons outdoor delivery drones. The report said that the decision comes "less than a month after the ecommerce powerhouse blasted regulators for being slow to approve commercial drone testing."

The FAA's letter to Amazon, dated April 8, was posted on the agency's website and spells out the parameters for the Amazon drones: The machines must fly no higher than 400 feet off the ground, and they are allowed to go no faster than 100 mph.

Amazon, which is based in Seattle, has indicated it wants to "use drones to deliver packages to its customers over distances of 10 miles or more," the NBC News report said.