Seven film production companies may soon be roaming the American skies with drones.
The Federal Aviation Authority announced Monday that it is considering granting regulatory exemptions to seven film companies represented by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to use unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or drones to photograph and film aerial shots for their productions. The companies involved are Aerial MOB, Astraeus Aerial, Flying-Cam, HeliVideo Productions, Pictorvision, Vortex Aerial and Snaproll Media.
"If the exemption requests are granted, there could be tangible economic benefits as the agency begins to address the demand for commercial UAS operations," says the FAA in a statement. "However, all the associated safety issues must be carefully considered to make sure any hazards are appropriately mitigated. The petitioner must still obtain operational approval from the FAA."
The FAA also said companies from other industries, particularly precision agriculture, oil and gas flare stack inspection and power line and pipeline inspection, have also approached the agency seeking permission to launch UAS. Currently, the FAA grants authorizations or waivers to public entities seeking to fly drones for purposes such as disaster relief, search and rescue, border patrol, law enforcement and firefighting. Private entities have had harder time receiving permission to fly UAS, which are given by the FAA on a case-to-case basis.
However, the FAA is cautiously relaxing its stance on flying unmanned drones for commercial purposes, saying in a report released in November that drones can be particularly useful in certain situations, such as when farmers would like to monitor their crops.
Still, debates about the use of drones bring up several prickly issues, particularly those pertaining to civilian safety and privacy. Just last month, the FAA announced that it was investigating an incident where a U.S. Airways regional jet plane nearly collided with a drone while flying close to a Florida airport. The pilot of U.S. Airways flight 4650 said the drone was a "small remotely piloted aircraft."
Privacy is also at the center of the drone debate. The small, nimble flying machines can possibly fly over large tracts of land and snap photos and gather other kinds of information about huge numbers of people who are unaware that a drone is flying overhead.
The MPAA, however, is looking forward to a positive response from the FAA.
"Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) offer the motion picture and television industry an innovative and safer option for filming," says [pdf] Neil Fried, MPAA senior vice president for government and regulatory affairs. "This new tool for storytellers will allow for creative and exciting aerial shots, and is the latest in a myriad of new technologies being used for our industry to further enhance the viewer experience."
