UAV - Typisk sak på grunn av mangel av retningslinjer - FAA

Texas Search Group, FAA, At Odds Over Drone Use


An unmanned surveillance drone. 

SOUTH TEXAS (AP) - A Texas-based group involved in searches for missing persons around the nation has run afoul of federal aviation authorities who are prohibiting the non-profit organization from employing drones in its work.

A fleet of four unmanned aircraft used by Texas EquuSearch is grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration while the agency develops rules that would allow for the commercial use of unmanned aircraft.
But with that plan still more than a year away, the volunteer group that has participated in such high-profile cases as Natalee Holloway and Caylee Anthony is facing an extended wait before it can resume using an aerial tool credited with nearly a dozen successful finds.

"It's a resource we've had success with and one we can't use," said Tim Miller, who founded Texas EquuSearch after his own daughter went missing in the 1980s. "We're volunteers. And for being a volunteer organization, they're making it impossible for us to help with this."

The FAA advised Texas EquuSearch in February that use of drones must stop immediately because rules do not yet allow for commercial use of such devices. But Miller's search volunteers, who began as a group on horseback in 2000, claim their drones are not used for commercial purposes and therefore should not be subject to the restrictions.

This is the latest in a series of skirmishes between the search organization and the agency that up until now did not include an outright order to ground all its drones.