FAA's Safety Rules for Commercial Drones Are Overly Strict, Report Says

The unusually strongly worded report released Monday urges "top-to-bottom" changes in how the Federal Aviation Administration assesses and manages risks from drones. The report, which was requested by Congress, also criticizes the agency for extending its traditional focus on "near-zero tolerance for risk" involving airliners and applying it to cover small drones flying at low altitudes away from airports. Instead, the report concludes, the agency should peg drone safety to more-comparable hazards confronting people on the ground such as those posed by small private-plane crashes or pedestrian-vehicle accidents. Such minimal but persistent levels of risk already are accepted by the public,according to the report. A fundamental issue is "what are we going to compare [drone] safety to?" said consultant George Ligler, who served as chairman of the committee that drafted the document.