§44812 Temporary Flight Restrictions for Unmanned Aircraft

Summary

FAA must, when asked by a credentialed law enforcement group of the federal, state, local, Tribal, or territorial government, temporarily stop drone flights over certain large public gatherings. The group must ask at least 30 calendar days before the event and give the FAA the venue boundaries, event dates and start/end times, contact people for the requester and the on-scene incident command, and any other info the FAA needs. For stadium events, the place must have hosted events that met special security rules under section 521 of Public Law 108–199 and must be open (not enclosed), and the crowd must be at least 30,000 people and the event advertised publicly. For other outdoor venues, the event must be outdoors, have a fixed boundary, be advertised publicly, and have at least 100,000 people. The FAA can deny a request if it would hurt aviation safety or security, create ground hazards, interfere with airspace use, if the requester did not follow the rules, if eligibility is not met, if another restriction already covers the same area, or for any other FAA reason. The FAA must try to act quickly and must publish the restriction publicly at least 2 days before the event. No one may fly a drone inside a restriction unless the FAA allows it for operations or safety, the FAA authorizes safety/security or oversight flights, or the eligible law enforcement entity approves the flight. The FAA may still authorize, cancel, or use existing procedures as needed.