US Lags behind other countries in commercial drone use

THE US Government Accounting office, in a report stated, that Australia, UK, Japan and Canada ?have progressed further than the United States with regulations supporting [drone] integration.? These conclusions have been drawn on a 2014 study conducted by the MITRE, for the Federal Aviation Administration. The report further mentioned that Japan, UK and Canada further had regulations that explicitly allowed commercial uses of unmanned aerial vehicles. 

The repost of GAO finds that these countries actually allow more commercial use than that of the United States. For about a decade, Japan has been using drones for agricultural purposes, with drones spreading pesticides and fertilizers.

More than 180 operating certificates have been issued by Australia for commercial UAS use. Additionally, more than 1000 commercial approvals have been sanctioned by other European Countries in regards to infrastructure safety inspections.

Canada has been found to have issued more than 1000 operating certificates in the very first nine months of this year alone. There has been a recent exemption by Canada, owing to small drones owing 2 kilograms or less along with drones weighing between 2.1 and 25 kilograms, in terms of operation certificates if the drones met certain criteria?s. These drones have been granted special operating certificates following a few operational restrictions, which include height restriction and requirement of operating within line of sight.

According to the GAO report, ?Transport Canada officials told us this arrangement allows them to use scarce resources to regulate situations of relatively high risk. For example, if a small [drone] is being used for photography in a rural area, this use may fall under the new criteria of not needing an [operating certificate], thus providing relatively easy access for commercial [drone] operations.?

Susweta Bose [Masters in Mass Comm ] Sub Editor Usa-Aviation-News.blogspot.com susweta.aerosoft@gmail.com