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 Some 73 percent of respondents to a Reuters/Ipsos online poll
released on Thursday said they want regulations for the lightweight,
remote-control planes that reportedly have been involved in an
increasing number of close calls with aircraft and crowds. People
are also uneasy about potential invasions of privacy by drones
carrying cameras or other devices.
Forty-two percent went as far as to oppose private ownership of
drones, suggesting they prefer restricting them to officials or
experts trained in safe operation.
Another 30 percent said private drone ownership was fine, and 28
percent were not sure, according to the survey of more than 2,000
respondents, conducted Jan. 21-27.
Many respondents were surveyed before a small quad copter breeched
the White House security perimeter and crash-landed on the grounds
on Jan. 26.
The poll results show widespread unease about the devices, many of
which can fly as high as 6,000 feet carrying video cameras or other
payloads.
"In regular peoples' hands, it's easy for them to get misused," said
poll respondent Sandy Gifford, a 58-year-old daycare worker in
Portland, Oregon. She equated drone dangers with those posed by guns
and drugs.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is months late in
developing small drone regulations. A draft FAA rule, under review
by the White House Office of Management and Budget, is expected to
be published soon, kicking off a year or two of comment and
revisions before it takes effect.
The FAA rule will cover commercial drone uses, such as photography,
surveying and crop inspection, which are now mostly banned. It will
not apply to hobbyists operating model aircraft under a safety code
of a community-based organization. Congress granted these users an
exemption from rules in 2012.
It was unclear how the rule will deal with people who buy drones
online or at a big box store, rather than joining the sport through
a club or hobby shop.
These non-traditional users, "don't have the same safety mindset
that a modeler does," said Rich Hudson, government affairs director
at the Academy of Model Aeronautics, world's largest community-based
model aircraft group, with nearly 80 years of safe flying.
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The AMA safety code says devices should stay below 400 feet near
airports, not be flown carelessly or recklessly, and avoid all other
aircraft, among other things.
Drones also have sparked fears of snooping by neighbors or law
enforcement. The Reuters/Ipsos poll showed strong attitudes on both
questions. Seventy-one percent said drones should not be allowed to
operate over someone else's property, and 64 percent said they would
not want their neighbor to have a drone.
But respondents widely supported drone use in law enforcement.
Sixty-eight percent of respondents support police flying drones to
solve crimes, and 62 percent support using them to deter crime.
"Where there's suspicious activity, it would help the police," said
Phillip Gimino, 75, a retired engineer in Edmond, Oklahoma, who flew
gas-powered radio-controlled aircraft as a kid. "But it should be
limited."
Gimino, a former gun dealer, opposes gun control laws, but said
drones should be off limits to private owners until rules are in
place.
The survey showed a split on other uses: 46 percent don't want news
organizations using drones to gather news, while 41 percent support
that use. And 49 percent think parents should be able to use drones
to monitor their children, while 38 percent oppose that use.
The survey of 2,405 American adults has a credibility interval of
plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.
(Reporting by Alwyn Scott; Editing by David Gregorio)
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reserved.]
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