FAA Proposes UAS Flight Restriction Areas Over Critical Infrastructure
In June, the FAA proposed rulemaking titled Restrict the Operation of Unmanned Aircraft in Close Proximity to a Fixed Site Facility. This would establish (under a new 14 CFR Part 74) a process for operators and proprietors of certain fixed site facilities to request and maintain an unmanned aircraft flight restriction (UAFR) by demonstrating to FAA that it would be necessary for aviation safety, protection of people and property on the ground, national security or homeland security.
The proposed rule identifies 16 critical infrastructure sectors with individualized eligibility criteria, but any applicant would need to demonstrate that the fixed site facility is critical infrastructure as defined by 42 U.S.C. 5195c(e): “systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety or any combination of those matters.”
However, these restrictions would not be so restrictive. Recreational (§44809) UAS operations would not be allowed within a UAFR, but §74.250 would allow UAS operations under Parts 91, 107, 108, 135 and 137 within the UAFR predicated only upon notice to the fixed site facility site manager (§74.255) and broadcasting Remote ID.
Last week, NAAA submitted comments on the proposed rule with a primary concern that the only conspicuity requirement is a Remote ID broadcast received on the ground by the facility. As routine users of the low-altitude airspace, and in the interest of both pilot safety and the protection of critical infrastructure, NAAA recommended further conditioning access to UAFRs by demonstration of comprehensive detect and avoid capability (i.e. effective against both cooperative and non-cooperative manned aircraft).
NAAA’s comments also identified a conflict between this proposed rule and the (still proposed as of this writing) Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) rulemaking. The proposed BVLOS rule would establish shielded areas within 50 feet of powerlines, substations, railroad tracks, bridges and pipelines. In these shielded areas, UAS would not be required to yield right-of-way to any aircraft, creating an unmitigated collision risk with manned agricultural aviation operations. This is in stark contrast to this new proposed UAFR rulemaking which seeks to protect some of these same types of critical infrastructure. In short, if the goal is really to protect critical infrastructure, where is the logic in permitting UAS operations over them wherein UAS are not required to make any attempt to avoid midair collisions (as proposed in the BVLOS rule)?
It is NAAA’s hope that this new rulemaking may be implicitly signaling that FAA will walk back any shielded area provisions from the final BVLOS rule. Further, if the association’s reasoning for requiring comprehensive DAA over critical infrastructure is heard and deemed sound by FAA, this could be one small incremental step forward in getting a handle on the collision risk posed by UAS to manned ag pilots.
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