6 ms·
The issue I see from looking at the photos on the site is that they were flying in airspace that's frequently occupied by 'real' air traffic and were blatantly
by code4tee 11y ago
The issue I see from looking at the photos on the site is that they were flying in airspace that's frequently occupied by 'real' air traffic and were blatantly violating the rules about where/when you can fly these things. The FAA told them to stop and they kept going anyway. Those rules aren't just bureaucratic fluff, but are there because there are real people flying real airplanes/helicopters in those areas.
I'm all for the whole "let's just ignore the rules and be disruptive" attitude that some new companies take these days, but you can't just go flying these things into airspace that's been designated for legit air traffic and expect to not get the book thrown at you. Heck they were doing this over NYC, they're lucky the Feds didn't decide to go all ballistic with the "we're going to treat you like a terrorist" stuff.
- meatysnapper 11y agoThey don't even need to fine the guys- just waterboard them for a week nonstop, and they'll probably behave better after that.
- paulcole 11y agoI'm all for the whole "let's just ignore the rules and be disruptive" attitude that some new companies take these days, but you can't just go driving these things into roads that've been designated for legit taxi traffic and expect to not get the book thrown at you. Heck they were doing this in NYC.
- jdc 11y agoUntil someone disrupts air traffic control, I'm afraid that airspace is stuck with the status quo.
- infamouscow 11y agoCare to explain how you go about "disrupting" air-traffic control?
- freehunter 11y agoPeople can easily route air traffic from their smartphones like the air traffic controller game. You have a bunch of people directing traffic in the game, and you find the most commonly agreed upon flight path and use that to direct the pilots! It's like how Duolingo crowd sources language translations. It's so obvious!
- asynchronous13 11y agoThis is both genius and horrifying.
- jdc 11y agoI was being facetious but now that I think about it, it does seem fairly inevitable that one day air-traffic control will be consider to have too low a margin for error to entrust to human operators.
- rday 11y agoUber leverages cars that are already on the road driven by licensed drivers.
- sophacles 11y agoThat's just not a similar comparison. Would you be jumping to Uber's defense if the drivers just started ignoring one way street rules, or perhaps if they just blatantly used bike lanes? That would be a similar situation.
- wheaties 11y agoUber driving people around will not endanger lives. Drones in class B airspace will.
- thaumasiotes 11y agoWhat's the danger from drones? How do our current aircraft handle birds?
- chronomex 11y agoBirds aren't made of plastic and metal and lithium-polymer.
- uberdog 11y agoThe birds are slaughtered. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/nyregion/13geese.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/nyregion/13geese.html
- thaumasiotes 11y agoThat sounds more like a danger to the drone than a danger to the plane.
- detaro 11y agoOccasionally, they crash and kill people: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2012/may/17/deadly-helo-crash-caused-bird/ http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2012/may/17/deadly-...
- mikeyouse 11y agoHere's a report from the NTSB about a helicopter flying at normal speed and altitude which hit a red-tailed hawk and resulted in the deaths of 8 people.. so there's that.. http://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20090104X12037&key=1 http://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=...
- ianstallings 11y ago
- chrismcb 11y agoA better analogy would be riding your bicycle on array, and not necessarily with traffic.
- tibbon 11y agoI agree. If they are operating unsafely and actually end up causing an incident that's going to cost a lot more than 2M
- x1798DE 11y agoI suppose that from a practical perspective they are lucky that the feds didn't abuse their power by treating air traffic violators as if they were deliberately attempting mass murder, but it's a bit disturbing how plausible that scenario is.
- derefr 11y agoNow that you mention it... there's pretty much no point in the TSA's involvement in passenger-side airport security when airplanes are comparatively much more easily attacked from the outside. If I was a terrorist, I know which method I'd choose.
- TeMPOraL 11y agoWouldn't that be detonating the bomb on the airport instead? This whole security theater only plays into terrorists' hands. Yes, it may be more difficult to board a plane with explosives nowadays, but on the other hand we have hundreds of people stuck in a line trying to pass through security one-by-one, dropping potential liquid explosives into a single bin!