Whoa Nelly! FAA Record Fine

ianwood · Oct 6, 2015

1.9M fine for unauthorized flights!

FAA's $1.9 million fine against drone photography company is biggest yet

Cerone · Oct 6, 2015

Link isn't working

bbfpv · Oct 6, 2015

works for me.

I can't imagine they even made that much $ last year.

snerd · Oct 6, 2015

About time! Some people think they don't have to play by the same rules the rest of us do. They just found out the hard way, that they do!!

GoodnNuff · Oct 6, 2015

Whoa!

N017RW · Oct 6, 2015

Yea buddy.

LuvMyTJ · Oct 6, 2015

Thats a lot of 'editing' fee's!

ianwood · Oct 6, 2015

Apparently, they've been ignoring FAA warnings, letters, etc. since 2012. Looks like their customers are giant development projects so I'd reckon they've got the dosh.

750r · Oct 6, 2015

Will see what happens in court . FAA needs to get moving instead of trying to keep us in the dark ages . Oh we missed the deadline so maybe next year . They all need fired bunch of morons that can't do there job .

snerd · Oct 6, 2015

750r said:
Will see what happens in court . FAA needs to get moving instead of trying to keep us in the dark ages . Oh we missed the deadline so maybe next year . They all need fired bunch of morons that can't do there job .

Kinda looks like "not" making any rules will be more profitable to them!

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witold · Oct 6, 2015

It is worth noting that this fine is for infractions that occurred between March 2012 and Nov 2014. But it is only in Oct 2015 that the investigation finished and fine came down. The wheels of federal beurocracy are slow and deliberate.

This company most likely has a lawyer set up legal structure, various liability policies, and other ways they've isolated themselves from putting their own personal assets at risk. It's not enough to just get LLC and do as you please. Something that people doing real estate flights for $50/pop usually forget.

tcope · Oct 6, 2015

The FAA gets their name in the news and sends a message to the drone flying public. More power to them. These charges will probably get consolidated to a max of $10,000 and in return the fine will be paid. Or they will agree to pay something like $500 on each offense. Keep in mind, they list the max fine to make it more news worthy.

304HighDrone · Oct 6, 2015

This will be very interesting to see how it plays out. This could set a trend one way or the other. I think official guidelines will be in place by the time this goes to court. If they were sent repeated warnings I can understand the fine, but the dollar amount is pretty much saying we aren't playing around.

happytreefriends · Oct 6, 2015

They deserve it if they state falsely that they are legal to fly with the FAA's approval and without the city's 'A-OK' either.

They can afford it by the looks of it. They have some biig clients..

dirkclod · Oct 6, 2015

LuvMyTJ said:
Thats a lot of 'editing' fee's!

BigAl07 · Oct 6, 2015

LuvMyTJ said:
Thats a lot of 'editing' fee's!

So true

SteveMann · Oct 6, 2015

snerd said:
Kinda looks like "not" making any rules will be more profitable to them!

The FAA is not a profit center. All monetary forfeitures go straight into the US treasury, not in the FAA budget.

iammrbt · Oct 7, 2015

SteveMann said:
The FAA is not a profit center. All monetary forfeitures go straight into the US treasury, not in the FAA budget.

While that's true Steve, if you make your boss money it's generally not a bad career move.

SteveMann · Oct 7, 2015

iammrbt said:
While that's true Steve, if you make your boss money it's generally not a bad career move.

You really don't understand how the FAA or our government works, do you?
FAA civil penalties are but couch lint in a $90 billion DOT budget. Penalties don't even show in the FAA or DOT budget requests even though some airlines have been fined hundreds of millions for maintenance or hazardous materials violations. I really doubt that anyone in the enforcement division gets high-fives for their work let alone add to their performance reviews.