The FAA's New Drone Ban Around Stadiums Has No Legal Footing to Stand On

Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration said that, from now on, it's illegal for drone and model aircraft operators to fly drones within three miles of major sporting events without a permit. Problem is, once again, the underlying law that the whole thing is based on is a bunch of malarkey.

The  FAA issued what is known as a Notice to Airmen that threatens drone pilots with up to a year in jail and suggests that they may be "intercepted, detained, and interviewed by law enforcement/security personnel." The thing about NOTAMs, as they are known, is that they are intended for manned aircraft and, as such, drone pilots aren't obligated to check them and, in fact, most likely aren't subject to its restrictions.

According to the notice, the new restrictions apply from an hour before to an hour after the completion of any MLB, NFL, or NCAA football game, as well as NASCAR and Indy Car races. It applies to any stadium with a seating capacity of more than 30,000 (which are most of the major sporting venues in the US).

Already, however, two federal courts have ruled that drones are not "aircraft" in the eyes of the law: The FAA still hasn't legally defined them, and the court has thrown out the idea that anything that flies is an aircraft. So it's hard to see the FAA's NOTAM being enforceable.

Of course, that probably doesn't matter: With the new threat of jail time and being detained, it's doubtful that many people are going to knowingly try to snap shots of a football game ( though there have been a few people who have done that recently, which has presumably spurred this new notice). And, well, flying a drone over a stadium is pretty dangerous and it is pretty stupid (one started a riot in Europe earlier this month).

There are also a lot of potential completely safe drone uses (that have nothing to do with photographing sports) at low altitudes that are within three miles of a stadium.

The FAA is right to place some sort of restrictions on flying a drone directly over 50,000 screaming fans. But,  once again, the agency has bungled the implementation.

The FAA has never required drone pilots to check NOTAMs before, and simply issuing one  buried on its not-easy-to-use site isn't enough. Thousands of people fly model aircraft the same way they always have: without trying to make money off of it, and without checking for new FAA rules every time they fly.

If the FAA is going to keep moving the goalpost (and everything we've seen has suggested that it is going to keep doing just that), it needs to start doing it in a way that makes it so that those playing the game can at least keep up.