FAA dumps recording-setting fine on aerial photo company over drone flights

The Federal Aviation Administration has asked an aerial photography studio to pay $1.7 million in fines for allegedly conducting dozens of unauthorized drone flights over New York and Chicago.

SkyPan International Inc. of Chicago was ordered on Tuesday to what the FAA said was the largest civil penalty ever proposed against a drone operator in the United States for endangering the safety of American airspace.

The FAA said the company was responsible for at least 65 unauthorized commercial unmanned aerial system flights that took place over the two cities between March 21, 2012, and Dec. 15, 2014, including 43 in New York’s highly restricted Class B airspace.

Each one of the more than five-dozen flights was conducted without first obtaining the proper certificates and registration, the FAA said, and none of the New York City missions had been cleared in advance with local air-traffic controllers.

“Flying unmanned aircraft in violation of the Federal Aviation Regulations is illegal and can be dangerous,” FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said. “We have the safest airspace in the world, and everyone who uses it must understand and observe our comprehensive set of rules and regulations.”

SkyPan has 30 days from Tuesday to formally respond to the FAA’s allegations, but it refuted the agency’s claims in a statement released shortly after the proposed penalty was unveiled.

“SkyPan has been conducting aerial photography above private property in urban areas for 27 years in full compliance with published FAA regulations. SkyPan is fully insured and proud of its impeccable record of protecting the public’s safety, security and privacy,” the photo studio said.

An application for FAA approval filed by SkyPan in December 2014 claimed the company has earned more than $55 billion from its aerial images since 1988, USA Today reported. The FAA ultimately signed off on the request and green-lighted SkyPan to fly an Align T Rex 700E F3C drone weighing up to 19 pounds, the paper reported, but the alleged infractions all occurred before the paperwork was approved.

The FAA’s proposal was announced in the wake of a wave of incidents in which drone hobbyists had landed in hot water for flights that ran afoul of local regulations.

In Washington, D.C., no fewer than two mishaps so far in 2015 have forced authorities to put the White House on lockdown after small unmanned aerial vehicles were discovered in airspace near the executive mansion; FAA rules prohibit drone fights within a 15-mile radius of Ronald-Reagan Washington National Airport without first obtaining special approval.