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A comment on New U.S. FAA rule requires drone owners to register by Feb 19. Parent comment

Re:New U.S. FAA rule requires drone owners to register by Fe... by mikeash on Monday December 14, 2015 @03:01PM (#10733394)
The last time I saw the topic of drones and aircraft collisions on the front page (maybe a week ago), the entire comment thread was filled with people downplaying the dangers, casting doubt on whether it even mattered, saying a three-pound (!) drone wouldn't do any actual damage on impact, etc.

I find the community attitude here to be completely insane. Regulation isn't necessarily the answer, but the general theme here seems to be "regulation isn't the answer, because there's no risk of collision, and a small aircraft colliding with a 3lb drone at 150MPH won't suffer any damage anyway."

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Re:New U.S. FAA rule requires drone owners to register by Fe... by kayfox on Monday December 14, 2015 @03:49PM (#10733731)
I don't think the dangers need to be downplayed.

The incidence does need to be looked at. I think we blame drones for all sorts of things that are not drones these days.

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Re:New U.S. FAA rule requires drone owners to register by Fe... by bdamm on Monday December 14, 2015 @04:20PM (#10733960)
There are already many cases on the books of drones flying into approach paths of airliners in many airports, including several into JFK. Just last week there was a case of a police helicopter that had a very close call with a drone (the helicopter pilot did execute collision avoidance, and police on the ground tracked the drone operator.) Incidence is there and rising.
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Re:New U.S. FAA rule requires drone owners to register by Fe... by mikeash on Monday December 14, 2015 @04:50PM (#10734193)
What do drones get blamed for that aren't drones, exactly?
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Re:New U.S. FAA rule requires drone owners to register by Fe... by ubernostrum on Monday December 14, 2015 @05:11PM (#10734350)
Regulation isn't necessarily the answer, but the general theme here seems to be "regulation isn't the answer, because there's no risk of collision, and a small aircraft colliding with a 3lb drone at 150MPH won't suffer any damage anyway."

This being HN, more likely it's "all regulation is morally evil".

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Re:New U.S. FAA rule requires drone owners to register by Fe... by mikeash on Monday December 14, 2015 @05:25PM (#10734457)
It goes beyond that, there seems to be a need to show that the purported problem doesn't even exist, not just that regulation would be wrong.
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Re:New U.S. FAA rule requires drone owners to register by Fe... by ubernostrum on Monday December 14, 2015 @05:32PM (#10734515)
Hand-in-hand, culturally: if there is a problem, it means an unregulated market didn't solve the problem. Since by definition unregulated markets can't have unsolved problems, the problem must exist and protecting the dogma requires demonstrating that the problem is a lie made up by sensationalist media.
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