The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) new rule providing for Remote ID requirements takes effect on September 16. Key points for your company to consider include:
- Confirm whether your organizations’ drones have remote ID capabilities. The FAA has a database where you can search for declarations of compliance that will tell you whether your units are certified to comply with remote ID.
- Update your organizations’ drone registrations with the FAA. You will be required to upload the serial number for either a remote-ID capable drone or a remote ID broadcast module to your existing drones’ FAA registrations. If you are purchasing new drones, you will need to complete a new registration.
- The FAA has not finalized its policies for “session IDs”. The News Media Drone Coalition, including the Alliance, supported this provision that will allow operations to broadcast unique session IDs rather than the news drone’s serial number. The FAA intends to seek comment before finalizing the plan. We will continue to monitor that proceeding. In the meantime, after September 16, news drones will need to broadcast their serial number. The database that correlates the serial number with the drone-registration database will only be accessible to the FAA, but the information will be made available to law enforcement and national security on request.
Holly Lubart is Vice President, Government Affairs at the News/Media Alliance. Previously, she served as Vice President of Government Affairs for the PA NewsMedia Association and started her career as a journalist. Lubart has over 20 years of political and communications experience.
