On December 19 at 10:19PM EST, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) over 29 sites within New York, active until January 18. This followed the imposition of TFRs over 22 communities in New Jersey on December 18.
As with the TFRs over NJ, the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAMs) prohibit drone flights within 1 nautical miles of the designated airspace up to an altitude of 400 feet. The TFRs in New York are targeted directly at critical infrastructure sites, exclusively covering substations & compressor stations and again provide federal agencies with the authority to defeat drones and apprehend their operators.
NY Governor Kathy Hochul requested the TFRs to be issued, and the FAA did so in coordination with state and federal security agencies. In a statement released prior to the TFRs going live, Governor Hochul remarked that:
“This action is purely precautionary; there are no threat to these sites. This is in addition to the state-of-the-art drone detection system delivered to us by the Biden-Harris Administration earlier this week…while we have not detected any public safety or national security threats, we will continue aggressively monitoring the situation as we call on Congress to pass legislation to give states and local law enforcement the authority and resources they need to manage this evolving technology.”
The state-of-the-art system referred to by Governor Hochul was delivered on Sunday December 15 and marked the federal government’s initial response to sightings across New York.
The FAA’s willingness to now enact precautionary TFRs in the absence of any ostensibly imminent threat demonstrates the extent to which the federal government is now going to reassure the public and lawmakers that the situation is under control.
It remains to be seen if these measures will do so and what further steps the government is willing to take should the current panic fail to subside.
Post Image Credit: The FAA
