Most small drones flying near a Florida (U.S.) airport during a 30-day survey had not received approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and more than one-third of them were above the maximum height allowed by law, according to a recently released study.1
The findings appear to show that the FAA’s Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) ─ a program introduced in 2018 to enable operators of small drones to receive expedited approval to operate in controlled airspace ─ was not functioning as was intended, researchers said in their report on the study.
“This research highlights notable gaps in effectiveness and compliance with existing FAA policies for integrating small unmanned aircraft systems [sUAS] into the low-altitude region of the National Airspace System,” said the report, published in the International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics and Aerospace.
The study, conducted over 30 days in August and September 2019 by rese…
