Drone Owners Don't Have To Register Aircraft With FAA, Court Rules

WASHINGTON, DC — Drone owners who use the aircraft for recreational purposes don't have to register them with the Federal Aviation Administration, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled Friday.

The FAA announced in December 2015 that drone owners would have to register the aircraft with the agency. In the case brought before the court, John Taylor, a model aircraft hobbyist, challenged the registration rule.

"To begin, Taylor does not think that the FAA had the statutory authority to issue the Registration Rule and require him to register," Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the opinion. "Taylor is right."

The court found that the rule issued by the FAA in 2015 is in violation of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act signed by President Barack Obama in 2012. Kavanaugh wrote that the FAA's rule violates Section 336 of the act, which states that the FAA "may not promulgate any rule or regulation regarding a model aircraft."

"The FAA’s Registration Rule violates Section 336 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act," the ruling states. "We grant Taylor’s petition for review of the Registration Rule, and we vacate the Registration Rule to the extent it applies to model aircraft."

The FAA issued the following statement in response to the ruling:

"We are carefully reviewing the U.S. Court of Appeals decision as it relates to drone registrations. The FAA put registration and operational regulations in place to ensure that drones are operated in a way that is safe and does not pose security and privacy threats. We are in the process of considering our options and response to the decision."

The FAA announced the rule to enforce safety. Statistics released by the FAA showed that after the rule was enforced, more than 460,000 drones had been registered by hobbyists and more than 5,500 had been registered in the database by non-hobbyists.

Image Credit: Peter Linehan via Flickr Creative Commons