Drones to Be Banned Around Statue of Liberty, Other U.S. Landmarks
Drone enthusiasts have less than a week until they are banned from flying their drones around the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, and the Hoover Dam, among others.
The Federal Aviation Administration, together with the Department of Interior, has issued an advisory that restricts drone flights within 400 feet of the boundaries of 10 landmark sites in the U.S. This notification was posted on the FAA website on Thursday, Sep. 28, and the ban will be in effect starting Thursday, Oct. 5.
The ban will last indefinitely, as of this time, and works in much the same way that the FAA has placed airspace restrictions over military bases. All of these pieces of information will be made available to the agency's B4UFLY app, as Engadget notes.
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There are 10 landmark sites, all under the care of the DOI, for which the Oct. 5 ban will apply. These include the Statue of Liberty in New York, the U.S.S. Constitution and surrounding Boston National Historical Park in Massachusetts, the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, and the Folsom Dam in California.
Also included are the Glen Canyon Dam in Lake Powell, Arizona; the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington; the Hoover Dam in Nevada; and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in Montana.
The Shasta Dam in California and the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota rounds out the list. The FAA is also considering more sites as other federal agencies submit requests for restrictions.
Drone operators who insist on flying their UAVs within 400 feet of these 10 sites could face criminal charges. They could also watch their drone get shot down, as Pentagon just approved a directive allowing the U.S. military to take down UAVs in no-fly areas, according to The Verge.
Exceptions to this ban will be allowed in a few cases after the ban is in place next week, with the proper authorization from the FAA and the respective landmark facility.
