NTSB Rules that FAA Regulations Apply to Drones

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) ruled yesterday that the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) aircraft regulations apply to drones. Bill Chappell from NPR has the story here. Additional reporting from The Hill is available here. The full NTSB ruling is available here.

Specifically, the NTSB ruled that a regulation prohibiting the reckless operation of aircraft (14 C.F.R. § 91.13(a)) applies to the operation of drones -- despite the FAA's release of circulars and other notices specifically discussing model aircraft operation.

This opinion overturns an earlier administrative law judge's ruling that the FAA's regulations do not apply to drones. That earlier decision is available here. I blogged about the previous decision here.

From the NTSB's ruling:

[T]he Administrator’s application of § 91.13(a) to respondent’s aircraft is reasonable. Section 91.13(a) states, “Aircraft operations for the purpose of air navigation. No person may operate an aircraft in a careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another.” As discussed above, neither the plain language of § 91.13(a) nor the definitions of “aircraft” applicable to regulations in 14 C.F.R. part 91 exclude unmanned aircraft. The Administrator’s interpretation of this text—that it applies to respondent’s operation of his Zephyr to prohibit careless or reckless operations—is reasonable, given the broad language of the section. In addition, the Administrator’s preamble text in its Notices of Proposed Rulemaking, published in the Federal Register under the Administrative Procedure Act for promulgation of § 91.13(a), do not contain any language indicating its application of § 91.13(a) to respondent’s aircraft is an unreasonable reading of the regulation’s text and purpose. The Board has affirmed the Administrator’s application of § 91.13(a) as an alleged independent violation in other cases in which, presumably, no other regulation would have explicitly prohibited the alleged conduct. (footnotes omitted).

And as to whether the FAA's 1981 Advisory Circular on "model aircraft" operation exclude these aircraft from other regulations:

Nothing in Advisory Circular 91-57, on its face, reflects any intent on the part of the FAA to exempt operators of unmanned or “model aircraft” from the prohibition on careless or reckless operation in § 91.13(a). At most, we discern in the advisory circular a recognition on the Administrator’s part that certain provisions of the FARs may not be logically applicable to model aircraft flown for recreational purposes. But nothing in the text of the document disclaims, implicitly or explicitly, the Administrator’s interest in regulating operations of model aircraft that pose a safety hazard. More importantly, the advisory circular puts the reasonable reader on notice of the Administrator’s intent to ensure the safe operation of model aircraft by appropriate means.

While drones are generally quite different from traditional aircraft, the NTSB's conclusion seems correct, given the broad language of the regulation and the non-exclusive language of the advisory circular.

The NTSB cites statutory and regulatory definitions of "aircraft" as "any contrivance invented, used, or designed to navigate, or fly in, the air" (49 USC § 40102(a)(6)) and as "a device that is used or intended to be used for flight in the air." (14 C.F.R. § 1.1). While this language covers a great many devices (possibly even including paper airplanes or "toy balsa wood gliders" as the administrative law judge's ruling warns), the language is nevertheless clear.

It is worth adding that even though I think the NTSB's reading is correct, that does not mean that I necessarily agree that regulations applying to full-sized, manned aircraft ought to be applied to drones. I think that the administrative law judge was correct to note the broad definition of "aircraft" for purposes of federal law and regulation -- but I don't think that the law's unintuitive breadth is a sufficient reason to disregard the plain meaning of the text.

The NTSB's ruling will almost certainly accentuate the need for specialized drone regulations. And it may have a secondary effect of prompting awareness and criticism of how far a broadly-worded federal law may extend.