Drone News: Pilot Interferes With Helicopter, NASA ASRS Reports, & Legislation Restricting Drones

Post Flight on Community 👉 https://bit.ly/premium-drone-communityWelcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have three stories for you this week. Charges for drone pilot allegedly interfering with a medical helicopter, NASA ASRS reports on the possible chop list, and New York Legislation to restrict what drones can be purchased by state agencies.
First up a 64-year-old drone operator in Orange County, Texas, has been charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly delaying a medical helicopter flight back in February. According to 12NewsNow, the incident occurred when first responders were aiding a 3-year-old child who had suffered cardiac arrest after a near-drowning. A medical helicopter called to transport the child was reportedly delayed because a drone was flying directly above it, somewhere between 50 and 100 feet over the helicopter. The drone pilot was identified, and his device was confiscated. He now faces a charge of "interfering with public duties," a class B misdemeanor in Texas, potentially leading to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine. It's unknown if federal charges will follow, but the FAA takes interference with manned aircraft, especially emergency services, VERY seriously. Thankfully, the child made a full recovery. Please don’t be that guy. Next up, this is really important for the entire aviation community, including us drone pilots. We have until July 7th – that’s just a few weeks – to submit comments on the value of two crucial voluntary safety reporting systems: NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) and the Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3RS). The program provides for pilots, controllers, mechanics and others to make confidential reports to the ASRS within NASA, insulating the reports from the FAA. As a result, NASA reports aviation safety issues in nearly real-time. The big advantage of the report is that the reporting person can't be subject to FAA enforcement actions even if a regulation has been broken. That's of course, if the action is inadvertent and if the report is made within 10 days.And finally, in New York, bill A2237/S3259 has passed the assembly earlier this week. The bill would restrict what equipment can be purchased by state and local public safety departments. This isn’t specific to drones and includes any and all “HARDWARE, SYSTEMS, DEVICES, SOFTWARE, OR SERVICES”. Waivers are available, but it’d be better for public safety not to need a waiver to purchase the best equipment fro the job. As of this recording, the bill hasn’t passed into law yet, and is going to the Governor next. So if you’re in NY, please reach out to your senators, representatives, and contact the Governor's office, especially if you're in public safety!And on post-flight this week, we're going to cover Renault, the French car manufacturer who has partnered with Parrot for a built-in vehicle dock, and Amazon, which is starting deliveries in San Antonio. Post-flight is our weekly show where we dive deeper into the news update items, with more opinionated takes and it is available in the Premium community at pilotinstitute.com/communityAlright, that's all we have for you this week. Join us Monday for the live Q and A on Monday.https://www.12newsnow.com/article/news/local/orange-county-drone-operator-charged-with-misdemeanor-in-connection-with-delay-of-life-saving-helicopter-flight/502-94b3858e-19f6-45ca-8b94-27ac90c0efd1https://avweb.com/aviation-news/comments-sought-on-blame-free-aviation-incident-reporting/https://droneadvocacyalliance.com/?vvsrc=%2FCampaigns%2F125752%2FRespond