No Guns or Flamethrowers For Drones

The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) is the United States’ national aviation authority and has the powers to regulate anything in regards to American civil aviation.  Up until now, no one questioned whether this would include drones or not, but this has now been made clear in a recent case at the U.S. district court in Connecticut where the judge sided with the FAA.

The case involved a drone that was created by the Haughwots that had been rigged with a handgun attached to it.  Following the release of a video of the drone posted on YouTube in July 2015, the FAA sent a subpoena to the Haughwots requesting some records to be handed over, including accounting for any profits that may have been made from the video.  However, the Haughwots decided not to comply with the subpoena claiming that because they had not yet been accused of any violation or crime, they were not required to.

Shortly after this, the Haughwots decided to post a second video on YouTube.  This time, the drone featured a flamethrower attached to it that roasted a turkey that was suspended between two trees.  Again, the FAA were not very happy after hearing about this and again requested that they comply with the original subpoenas that were issued.  For the second time, the Haughwots refused to comply with the subpoena.

This time, the FAA did not let things go quite so easily and went to the federal courts for assistance in enforcing the subpoena.  Even though the Haughwot’s attorney argued that the FAA “can’t possibly rule over all things in the sky,” Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer disagreed.  The court found the FAA in favor of having a legitimate purpose at the very least to obtain further information using investigation and ordered the Haughwots to comply with the subpoena.

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