Proposed New York City Drone Ban Would Be the Strictest in the Country

(Source: motherboard.vice.com)  

A New York City council member is introducing legislation that would ban drones in the city, according to draft legislation obtained by Motherboard.

The bill would amend the city’s existing administrative code on aviation to severely restrict drones within city limits, essentially banning them except under very specific circumstances.

The measure, set to be announced by council members Paul Vallone and Daniel Garodnick on Wednesday, bans drones within five miles of an airport (which encompasses most of the city), and within a quarter mile of a school, hospital, church, or “open-air assembly,” provisions which also make it nearly impossible to fly in most of the city’s five boroughs.

In order to pass, it would need support from a majority of the city’s 51 council members and would first need to move through a committee process. At this early stage, it’s hard to say whether it has the support needed to move through council.

The bill does not restrict drone use for “agencies of the city,” meaning the New York City Police Department would still be allowed to fly drones, something it has expressed interest in doing in the past.

Beyond that, the bill would ban flying at night, during bad weather, outside line of sight of the operator, and flights that go above 400 feet. It also specifically bans drones equipped with weapons or a “dangerous instrument” and bans drones “for the purpose of conducting surveillance.”

If enacted, anyone who violates the ban could be subject to a $1,000 fine and a year in jail. The lesser infractions (flying at night, flying in bad weather) carry a punishment of up to $250 and 15 days in jail.

It defines an “unmanned aerial vehicle” as any “vehicle capable of flight without a human pilot on board that is operated either autonomously by computers or by an individual from outside the vehicle,” a fairly broad interpretation that could ban tiny, remote-controlled helicopters and other toys.

Earlier this summer, Vallone threatened to ban drones that “endanger the lives” of its citizens—this bill appears to do that, and much more. In the last year or so, the city has had several high-profile drone and model aircraft incidents: A man in Brooklyn died when the fuel-powered remote-controlled helicopter he was piloting partially decapitated him (it was a stunt gone terribly wrong); a man in Midtown crashed into a high rise; and two hobbyist pilots became involved in a police snafu when an NYPD helicopter chased their drone.

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