Originally Posted by
rgburrill
I am posting this here primarily because of the funky stuff RCUniverse has going on with the webiste and the fat that I still have to use IE8 because this place won't upgrade to IE11 yet. Also, this thread is the most popular one know and I think this info needs ot go to a lot of people. If the moderators would like to move it and start anohter thread that would be great.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday proposed a record $1.9 million fine against an aerial photography company for flying drones in crowded New York and Chicago airspace without permission.
SkyPan International Inc. of Chicago operated 65 unauthorized flights between March 2012 and December 2014 in some of the nation's most congested airspace, the FAA said in a statement. - http://news.yahoo.com/faa-proposes-n...--finance.html
Remember that a lot of those near misses were in the Newark, New York arspace? 43 of these flights were also
This is fantastic news, as Chris has said, I hope the fine sticks. Chances are they will negotiate a settlement, and then try to go about this the right way. They could spend years and a ton of money trying to fight the fine and still end up losing. That's a big chunk of change as well, and not something covered by insurance, so it will come right out of profits (if they even have that much). FAA seems to be sending a big message. Hopefully this is a benchmark case that other companies will look at and think twice about.
Whereas those near missed etc have almost never been tracked back to a source, these guys crowed about what they could, and were doing. Sort of like a YouTube video, only much more costly. I'd like to see the medial follow up on this story, and the other one referenced in the piece, as to final outcome.