Roy J. Riley 
In the latest FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, federal law was changed by increasing the maximum limits of liability for a person from $25,000 up to $75,000 for violations listed in 49 USC 46301. This applies to individual people and companies flying drones.
But a civil fine is not the only tool in the toolbox. The FAA also has the tool to suspend or revoke certificates such as operating certificates, airman certificates, or aircraft registration certificates, which effectively results in grounding. Certain exotic and unique drone operations need additional FAA approvals, such as a waiver or exemption. The FAA can rescind those as well. Recently, in July, the FAA rescinded the exemption of a Part 137 drone operator resulting in the total grounding of all of their operations.
In the latest batch of FAA enforcement actions coming to light, the FAA proposed fines against 27 people totaling in the aggregate $341,413.
We do not have all the details of the events or the people. I’m working on obtaining more information. We do have information on 5 of the enforcement actions.
The first one I’ll talk about was a drone operator who flew too close to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office helicopter and was searching for a burglary suspect. The helicopter had to stop the search to prevent a mid-air collision due to the drone not having an anticollision light on it at night as the regulations require. The drone was unregistered and flew over 400 above the ground. The person was fined $32,700.
Another pilot was fined $18,200 for intentionally flying during the Miami Grand Prix in a temporary flight restriction without approval, without airspace authorization to fly in Class D airspace near an airport, operating without a remote pilot certificate, and beyond the line of the sight of the pilot.
Two people were flying near the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California during a temporary flight restriction during the Super Bowl. They flew without airspace authorization to fly near the airport, and they didn’t have remote pilot certificates. One received a proposed fine of $16,000 and the other $4,000.
Another person flew an unregistered drone inside the Paul Brown Stadium during an NFL game at night, flew over the crowd of spectators, did not have airspace approval to fly near the airport, flew without the remote pilot certificate, flew beyond the line of sight, and flew in the temporary flight restriction associated with the NFL game. This person was fined $7,760.
Lastly, a person was fined $5,000 for creating a collision hazard with a helicopter and not possessing a remote pilot certificate. The drone flew so close that the helicopter’s downwash pushed the drone into the ground.
Overall, you can see a pattern developing where people were flying near airports without authorization, flying in temporary flight restrictions, flying unregistered drones, and not possessing a remote pilot certificate. These all can be remedied easily and for free or very little.
You can check the airspace here. Just go here and type in the address. It will show if you are in class B, C, D, or E at the surface airspace which is associated with an airport. If so, you’ll need an airspace authorization to fly there. You can obtain airspace authorization through a program connected to LAANC. FAA has an entire page here listing all of the different applications that do this.
You can check for temporary flight restrictions on some of those LAANC applications. The FAA also has a page here showing these temporary flight restrictions.
For recreational flyers, you obtain a TRUST certificate. There are many places to obtain this. The FAA has a complete list here. For non-recreational drone flyers, you must obtain the remote pilot certificate. The test is $175. There are numerous places online that have free Part 107 study guide material.
In all, it seems very unwise to lose so much money and time for what could have been prevented for little to no cost.
