The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wants to test technology that can determine the location of operators of small drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), spotted near airports.
By this measure, the FAA will attempt to improve aircraft safety and airport security.
The FAA explained its intentions on Wednesday before the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The technology, the agency claimed, would allow government officials to track the radio signals from operators of drones across a 5-mile radius from airports, and identify the location of those operators.
Michael Whitaker, deputy administrator of the FAA, said that it is not decided where and when the invention will be used.
If, in 2014, pilots reported very few sightings of drones flying near airports or airplanes, this year the number was raised to around 100 sightings. Accidents, such as a drone getting sucked into an engine or smashing through a cockpit windshield, are a nightmare to aircraft security personnel.
"One of the biggest challenges we're having is locating the operator," Whitaker pointed out.
CACI International Inc. is the company responsible for producing and implementing the technology. It "provides a proven way to passively detect, identify, and track" UAVs and their pilots on the ground, explained John Mengucci, company president and chief operating officer.
CACI International has worked with the Department of Defense and other intelligence agencies in the U.S. for a few years now.
Aircraft pilots have complained about more than 700 drone flights from November 2014 to August 2015. Especially troublesome were notices received by the U.S. Forest Service, which reported 18 unauthorized UAV flights near wildfires, and more than half of them hindered the airborne firefighters.
A rising trend in aerial deliveries has also prompted companies to deploy their own drones. The FAA has granted 1,700 permits to commercial operators.
According to the regulations drafted by the FAA, drone flights are legal at a height of 400 feet maximum, provided that the operator is 5 miles away from an airport. Most cases of dangerous drone flights have so far been from insufficiently trained hobbyists.
The Academy of Model Aeronautics told the FAA that the concerns are mostly overstated. It claims that the number of perilous encounters is much lower since many sightings involved birds and even drones that were government-operated.
Tim Canoll, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, strongly supports legislation that helps the FAA have better control over civilian-operated drones.
In case a drone crashes with an airliner, "It's going to be a challenge for the flight crew to save the aircraft," Canoll said.
