Report: 96 percent of pilot-reported drone sightings are totally benign

The Federal Aviation Administration exists to keep the skies safe for people. In the past two years, that task has grown much more complex. The FAA added an unprecedented number of new pilots: 770,000 registered drone operators, which is almost 200,000 more than the 584,000 total pilot certificates held in 2016. As one might expect, that massive increase in people operating flying machine is accompanied by a jump in how many pilots saw strange airborne objects. What didn't change, even as hundreds of thousands of drones joined the skies over the United States, is the number of dangerous close encounters with drones.