FAA Busted Multiple Drone Flyers. Here Are The Expensive Results.

If you received a drone for Christmas, you should be careful in how you fly your drone because there are laws on what you can and cannot do with a drone. There are also restrictions on where you cannot fly. Not knowing these regulations can cause big problems. We managed to get ahold of the FAA enforcement actions ranging from 2012 to 2020. It was hundreds and hundreds of pages of reading that my intern Trevor Simoneau and I had to wade through. Here are some of the results.

One pilot received a fine of $1.9 million based upon a series of commercial drone flights over a period of time. If you set aside the $1.9 million fine, there are still some large fines that the FAA has dished out: $182,000 for the Philadelphia flyer case I wrote about previously and $55,000 for the flight for the event honoring Cecil the lion. Others have received fines such as 39k, 18k, 17k, 16k, and on downward.

Each drone flight counts as one separate violation, so if you fly 3 batteries worth, you essentially have 3 separate violations. Moreover, it’s also rare you have only one violation of the regulations during that one flight. Many of the cases we analyzed had 8-10 different regulatory violations for the flights. That’s how that one individual managed to rack up $1.9 million in fines because he flew many flights with multiple violations happening each flight.

When you think of drones…what’s the first industry you think of that uses drones? Real estate. But before you realtors out there go and buy yourself a drone to DIY your own photography without having a remote pilot certificate from the FAA, one guy in Minnesota without a remote pilot certificate was fined a total of $39,700 for multiple flights which included some flights for the purpose of obtaining photographs for real estate listings. Here is the actual language from the FAA documents, “The purpose of flight 7 was to advertise a real estate listing for” a very well-known real estate brokerage firm. Also, if you dig into one of the other cases, the real estate brokerage firm that hired the pilot had to respond to subpoenas from the FAA. This caused that brokerage firm time complying with the subpoena by reviewing and turning over the documents requested.

Interestingly, a few business entities were fined for their allegedly illegal operations. It was not just all individual pilots.

Monetary fines are not the only tool in the FAA’s belt. The FAA did revoke some pilot certificates and also suspended some pilot certificates.  One of the certificates was a Part 61 commercial pilot certificate. In one case, the FAA fined the pilot $3,000 and also revoked their pilot certificate.

Now you might be asking yourself, “How did the FAA find the person?” When we dug through the hundreds of pages of reading, one common theme stood out – the drone was physically obtained. This happened due to multiple reasons. Here’s the actual language from the FAA documents:

• “The flight referenced above ended when the UAS crashed into the Space Needle near the persons working on top of the structure and near the fireworks they were installing”
• “The flight ended when the UAS crashed into a residential apartment located on . . . . The UAS shattered the apartment window causing glass to land onto the occupant of the apartment as well as inside of the apartment.”
• “The flight ended when the UAS crashed into a building”
• “[E]nded when the sUAS crashed into a large tree located on a residential property  . . . where it thereafter struck a car belonging to another.”
• “[Y]ou lost control of the sUAS causing it to strike and injure four individuals.”

Another theme was some of the pilots were flying in flight restrictions near major sporting events around the United States. Sport stadiums typically have many people on the ground and major airports nearby. That’s why those pilots were fined not only for flying in the flight restriction, but also for flying over people and in controlled airspace associated with the airport nearby.

The last theme is flights in the Washington D.C. area. Flying near Washington D.C. is a complex animal. There are multiple layers of flight restrictions applying to this airspace while at the same time large areas of controlled airspace associated with very busy airports.

The FAA has not publicized their enforcements much, but other federal agencies have been vocal. The Department of Justice and Department of Transportation have published information on drone operators getting busted by their agencies (FAA is not the only one that goes after bad drone flyers). DOJ has been pretty vocal at prosecuting drone flyers. I previously reported on their prosecution of the individual who had a mid-air collision with the Los Angeles Police helicopter. DOT recently published the results of their Office of Inspector General doing investigations into unlawful UAS activities from FY2017-Jul 21,2021 which showed 12 indictments, 5 convictions, and 4 sentences resulting in 11 years of prison.

So in conclusion, before you go out and fly your drone, you should definitely head over to the FAA’s website and read through the material – especially when their material is free.