The FAA has announced an agreement that recently gave fire fighters battling a fire engulfing a large swath of Yosemite national park in California real time footage delivered from a military drone.
The FAA issued an emergency "certificate of authorization" to the California Air National Guard to fly an MQ-1 over the Yosemite Rim fire and transmit real time data to fire fighters on the ground, helping them make faster and more informed decisions.The agreement to allow domestic use of drones comes amid a growing debate about how and when they should be used in US airspace, and operated by whom.
The FAA noted that in 2012 it also approved an emergency COA for humanitarian assistance to use a small UAS for an ice survey near the harbor of Nome, Alaska in January. Nome had been running low on fuel and a tanker ship was having a hard time reaching the harbor because of thick ice, the FAA explained, adding that the drone provided photos the tanker crew used to get close enough to land through the ice pack.
