Small UAV coalition challenges safety comments by FAA official.

The following statement has been issued by Michael Drobac, executive director of the Small UAV Coalition:

“The Small UAV Coalition is extremely disappointed with the comments of the FAA Deputy Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety related to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). At a time when the FAA is currently behind schedule in developing a rule for commercial use of small UAVs, any conclusory and indiscriminate statement about the safety of UAVs when only a handful of commercial operations are allowed is simply not credible. It is profoundly dismaying as well as unproductive for a senior official of the agency tasked with writing a rule on small commercial UAVs to question the technological safety of UAVs when hundreds of companies can demonstrate that the technology is safe but have been frustrated in doing so due to delays and restrictive processes at the FAA. UAVs have been operating safely in other regulated countries for years.”

About the Small UAV Coalition:

Leading technology companies founded the Small UAV Coalition to pave the way for commercial, philanthropic, and civil use of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in the United States and aboard. Chief among the organization’s goals is to advance a regulatory environment that will support safe, reliable, and timely operation of small UAVs.

Members are: 3DR, Airware, Aerialtronics, Amazon Prime Air, DJI Innovations, Google[x] Project Wing, GoPro, Parrot, PrecisionHawk, and Skyward IO.

For more information on the Small UAV Coalition, please visit www.smalluavcoalition.org, contact press@smalluavcoalition.org, or follow @smallUAVs on Twitter.