Have you ever wondered what the FAA has done in going after bad drone flyers? Have they fined remote pilots? Have they taken away their pilot certificates? All these questions and many more will be answered in this article which is designed to be the most comprehensive article on the topic. We dive into 70 enforcement actions from 2012-2020. The enforcement actions range from all sorts of things from flying near Washington D.C. to drone colliding in mid-air and causing damage to hotel property.
This article was co-written with Trevor Simoneau.
I didn’t want to drag people’s names through the mud so we scrubbed things. We just have case numbers.
Table of Contents of Article
What is an FAA Enforcement Action?
Under 49 U.S. Code § 106, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is tasked with enforcing the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs), a form of administrative law that governs all aspects of air travel in the United States including airspace, safety requirements, and remote pilot operating rules (Hamilton & Nilsson, 2020). It’s crucial to understand that FARs are not a form of criminal law but rather administrative law, meaning there are no criminal penalties associated with FAR violations. You can’t be thrown in jail for violating a FAR, however, there are a wide range of other possible consequences. These include administrative disposition actions such as being issued a warning notice or letter of correction, civil penalties, certificate action, summary seizure of aircraft, or reexamination (Hamilton & Nilsson, 2020). We will focus specifically on civil penalties and certificate actions since these are the two most common types of enforcement actions taken against remote pilots.
Civil Penalties. In many cases, FAA prosecutors choose to impose a civil penalty (fine) as opposed to taking certificate action. This occurs frequently in remote pilot enforcement cases (see enforcement data below). FAA Order 2150.3C Change 6 outlines the framework for FAA prosecutors to determine the specific dollar amount per FAR violation to issue.
Certificate Action. There are two types of certificate action an FAA prosecutor can choose between certificate suspension and certificate revocation (Hamilton & Nilsson, 2020). If the suspension is the elected sanction, the FAA prosecutor must specify for how long the pilot’s certificate will be suspended. If revocation is the elected sanction, the pilot must surrender their certificate to the FAA (Hamilton & Nilsson, 2020). FAA prosecutors will consider precedent, current FAA enforcement priorities, and individual considerations as factors when selecting either certificate suspension or revocation (Hamilton & Nilsson, 2020). Keep in mind the FAA could go after certificates of waiver, operating certificates (e.g. Parts 135 and 137), or certificates of authorization.
