Officials Halt Drone Operator Trying to Aid Colorado Responders

Last Friday afternoon, in the midst of the Colorado flooding disaster, Chris Miser was at the Boulder Emergency Operations Center. Miser, the owner of Falcon UAV, was showing disaster-response officials the imagery his drone had taken during a damage-assessment flight over the flooded town of Longmont. "The GIS people who do the mapping for the area were there," Miser says. "The transportation people were there because they wanted to know which roads were washed out. The emergency-response people were there because they wanted to know which roads needed to be closed and which houses were flooded."

The meeting was a perfect example of how small UAVs can be used in disaster response. Nevertheless, Miser, whose company sells drones for $15,000 to $55,000 to local and state agencies, as well as to the agriculture and oil and gas industries, soon found himself in hot water. As he headed to Lyons, another hard-hit town 50 miles north of Denver, he got a call from one of his contacts at the Boulder operations center. The caller told him that FEMA was in control of the airspace and that if his drone took flight he'd be arrested. That's when his volunteering effort came to an abrupt end.

It's common for air traffic to be closed around over a disaster area, but that job belongs to the Federal Aviation Administration?not by FEMA. Typically, emergency managers on the ground work with the FAA to sort out exemptions for disaster-response aircraft.

However, it can be a controversial practice. Many complained that the FAA was trying to protect ExxonMobil when it shut down the airspace over Mayflower, Ark., in April after an oil-pipeline rupture caused the evacuation of 20 homes and extensive environmental damage. Most post-disaster closures are decidedly more mundane. In addition to the airspace closure over parts of Colorado this week, the FAA also closed the airspace over Plush, Ore., "to provide a safe environment for firefighting aircraft operations" as efforts to contain wildland fires there continue.

"It makes sense to shut down the airspace during a disaster," concedes Miser. "What was irritating was how they did it. All the helicopters were up in the mountains and canyons doing search and rescue. I was in the flatlands, where there was nobody else up in the air. They didn't ask if I was a hobbyist or professional. They didn't ask about my capabilities. They didn't ask if I was taking live video or still shots. They just said no drone flights, or I'd be arrested."

For its part, FEMA (which is not a law enforcement agency) referred questions to local emergency management officials in Boulder. "I heard from one guy at FEMA who said it wasn't them that issued this order," says Miser. "Then I heard from another FEMA guy who said that if they had a disaster in their area, they'd be happy for the help."

The confusion in Colorado is an unavoidable outgrowth of the rise of civilian UAVs in American airspace, which PopMech covered in our September cover story. The FAA is under a Congressional mandate to formulate rules and regulation that will integrate drones into the way it polices our skies. But the going is slow. And until those rules are in place, there are bound to be more examples of drone operators clashing with authorities?whether those drone operators are flying mischievous dive-bombs around national landmarks, or trying to aid rescue workers in the midst of a crisis.

"We were up in the air when the National Guard helicopters were grounded because of bad weather," Miser says. His Falcon UAVs record survey-grade imagery that can be particularly helpful in the aftermath of a disaster. "If there's a need to rebuild a road quickly," says Miser, "we can tell them how much volume was lost during the flood and how much needs to go back."

John Galvin, a contributing editor, covers natural disasters and other emergencies for Popular Mechanics. Follow him on Twitter @JohnPGalvin.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/survival/stories/officials-shut-down-drone-operator-trying-to-aid-colorado-rescuers-15936242?src=rss

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