Report: Drones Are A Threat To Airline Safety

The growing surge in demand for drones is causing a bit of a headache for airports. According to a report by Bloomberg, pilots and air traffic control personnel reported more than 100 drone sightings to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The publication added that the FAA received more than 1,200 incidents across the U.S. last year. FAA rules restrict the use of drones within 5 miles of an airport and above 400 feet. Drones are considered a safety risk, according to Tim Canoll, president of the Air Line Pilots Association. He said "we're not kidding when we say it has to be mitigated as a threat." Canoll added, "your imagination can run wild with the problems of hitting hard metal objects at 200 miles per hour." "We don't want to fuel fears over drones and we don't want the flying public to be overly concerned with this issue, but we do want to say this should be a consideration going forward," says Dan Gettinger, co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College. "A lot of things have to go wrong for a collision to happen." Bloomberg's report does not mention drone makers by name but the potential for stricter regulatory enforcement is an overhang for GoPro Inc GPRO investors ahead of the company's launch of a drone product.