The Federal Aviation Administration received 4,499 comments to its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to regulate small unmanned aircraft systems weighing less than 55 pounds, a government website indicates. The public comment period closed on April 24; the FAA will now assess those comments in formulating a final regulation.
The number of comments received and copies of comments to the proposed rule, “Operation and Certification of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems,” are listed on the website Regulations.gov. The FAA announced the NPRM nearly four years later than expected on February 15; it was published in the Federal Register on February 23, beginning a 60-day comment period.
Though substantial, the apparent number of comments received to a draft regulation that will enable commercial use of small drones fell short of estimates ranging to the tens of thousands. Similarly, a request for comments the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issued on “privacy, transparency and accountability” considerations of using small drones drew only 51 responses as of the April 20 comment deadline.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which sued in 2012 to compel the FAA to release information on certificates of authorization the agency had issued for drones, told AIN it planned to respond to the FAA’s notice. However, the EFF did not respond to the NTIA solicitation “due to limited staff availability and the feeling that our resources could be better used elsewhere.”
The FAA has said the process of producing a final rule could take 18 months or longer. However, Administrator Michael Huerta has indicated that he would like to see the final rule published this year.