NU drone expert to local media: Be skeptical

LINCOLN, Neb. — University of Nebraska-Lincoln journalism instructor and Drone Journalism Lab director Matt Waite is offering advice to Nebraska news outlets on covering the ongoing drone mystery.

“There is a legitimate mystery here. Multiple people in multiple places have reported seeing multiple large drones – estimated at six-foot wingspans – flying in formation in a grid pattern after dark. This is not typical, and the operators are not known.

“But every blinking light in the sky is not a mystery drone. People have reported airplanes, planets, satellites and other airborne sightings as drones to law enforcement. The question you have before you is what is news and what isn’t. Not every report is news," he said in an email delivered by the Nebraska News Service, which provides student-generated news to local media outlets.

He noted that the Nebraska State Patrol has asked people to report drone sightings to law enforcement as follows:

-- Report any clusters of four or more drones

-- Report the location, general direction of travel and movement of the drones.

-- Lighting configuration, number of lights, color, any patterns to the lights. Estimated size of the drones. Is it a fixed wing? Multirotor? What sound did it make?

-- Did it fly straight, side to side, up and down, in a grid pattern, over an area? How long did it fly like that? How long were they in the air?

-- NSP is also asking for people to look for potential control vehicles, like SUVs or vans, possibly with an antenna.

Source: http://bit.ly/37Rpeb4

Waite said local media need to work to sort solid news from noise — “a small drone bobbing and fluttering around a neighborhood at night for about 20 minutes is not the same thing as a formation of drones flying grids over large areas.”

He said while it is a violation of FAA regulations to fly at night without approval from the FAA, approval is common, so anyone flying at night is not necessarily violating rules.

As for flying drones beyond line of sight of the operator, if a company had permission to do so, it would be common knowledge in the industry. That makes it more likely operators of the mystery drones might be violating FAA regulations, Waite said.

He also reminded that it is against federal law to shoot a drone, which is considered an aircraft, so a violator could be guilty of a felony punishable by up to five years in federal prison.

He also noted that there are no FAA regulations about privacy or private property.

“The FAA asserts jurisdiction over all airspace, right down to the grass in your back yard. FAA regulations require drone pilots not to fly over people’s heads or in a reckless manner, but flight over private property is not part of federal aviation regulations,” Waite said.

He said eyewitness descriptions of distance and altitude, daylight or night, should be treated “with massive amounts of skepticism and are almost certainly wrong.”