Homeland Security Warns Drones Could Be Used In Attacks

Recently there were three drone sightings in as many days at John F. Kennedy global Airport in New York City, for instance, and the pilot of a personal aircraft needed to make a sudden swerve over southern New Jersey when he spotted a UAV about 1,000 feet in the air.

According to federal officials speaking to the publication, drones will “gain wider appeal” with consumers, but “while many of these encounters are not malicious in nature, they underscore potential security vulnerabilities… that could be used by adversaries to leverage [drones] as part of an attack”.

It doesn’t really matter if there are heavy fines for flying drones where they shouldn’t be flown – people are just going to do it anyway if they can. All three flights landed safely.

“The CAA has applauded moves by UAS manufacturers to build “geo-fencing” capabilities into their products” software. It’s against the law to fly a drone, even a recreational unmanned aircraft, over an airport, but it happened twice on Friday. These included setting a maximum altitude of 500 feet for UAS operation, keeping the vehicle within line of sight of the operator and daylight-only operations. So airline pilots have no warning when a mini quad-copter or other drone hurtles past their wing.

ABC News reported that the “intelligence assessment” – which has not been made public – does not provide examples of specific or known drone-related threats, but instead points to an uptick in drone use by terrorist and criminal organizations overseas. The pilot said the unmanned aircraft was to the right side of the American flight and was black and red in color.

Part of the reason the FAA has been hesitant to open the door for tethered drones is that the devices haven’t been proven to be any safer than free-flying drones.

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