Reviews |DJI: US weight limit for lowest-risk drones is far too low

DJI: US weight limit for lowest-risk drones is far too low

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The US Federal Aviation Administration’s weight standard for determining which drones pose the lowest risk to people is far too low, according to DJI.

While the FAA’s 2015 Registration Task Force said drones weighing up to 250 grams posed the lowest risk, in a new white paper DJI says that further research shows “that standard was based on poorly chosen data and deeply flawed assumptions – including an almost 50-year-old model of casualties from a nuclear war that destroys all hospitals.”

DJI claims that unmanned aircraft systems up to 2.2kg can be safely flown with the lowest risk.

“The RTF had only three days to decide how much a drone should weigh to require registration, and RTF members – including myself – unanimously set a 250-gram limit for registration purposes only, not for safety rulemaking,” said Brendan Schulman, DJI Vice President of Policy and Legal Affairs, who co-authored the white paper with Walter Stockwell, DJI Director of Technical Standards.

“Nevertheless, regulators around the world are using the FAA’s 250g limit as a safety standard for the lowest-risk drones, despite its flaws. We hope our white paper spurs more detailed evaluation for better and more accurate rulemaking.”

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DJI’s white paper continues: “Given the faulty assumptions that underlie the selection of 250 g, regulators should be hesitant to adopt a 250 g UAS category without conducting their own rigorous safety analysis based on the desired policy goals.

“A review of the RTF’s work shows that its selection of 250g is far too low, and far too conservative, to be used to create a lowest-risk UAS regulatory category. Based on a similar approach to risk estimation, with adjustments for real world factors, we propose 2.2 kg as the upper threshold of a ‘lowest-risk’ UAS category.”

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