When the Federal Aviation Administration granted waivers for Hollywood filmmakers to fly drones on movie sets, federal regulators did so despite warnings from safety inspectors that the plans were too risky and should not be authorized, The Washington Post's Craig Whitlock reports: "The warning turned out to be prescient. On Wednesday, a camera-toting drone operated by one of the filmmakers, Pictorvision, flew off a set in California and disappeared, according to an FAA report."
The agency is facing 167 applications to be permitted to use drones in commercial applications and is not keeping up with the technological advances in the drone industry, Whitlock further reports. The agency is expected to miss the September 2015 deadline on integrating drones into the American airspace by two years.
Whitlock has a delayed investigative report into how the FAA is functioning right now amid a lot of pressure to get drones going safely but quickly. One problem, Whitlock writes, is that a consultant was hired to help streamline the FAA's review process, but the company was also an advocate for the Hollywood filmmakers seeking approval for drone use. The relationship has since ended.
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