ARLINGTON, Va. — As more people buy and fly drones, more and more of the unmanned aircraft are聽interfering with air traffic.
The latest example came last Sunday, which saw聽at least 12聽separate incidents of drones flying too close to planes and airports.聽In the D.C. area, fighter jets had to be scrambled as a precaution after a drone was spotted by a pilot in highly restricted airspace over the U.S. Capitol.
In聽other cases, planes nearly hit these drones. In Los Angeles, a JetBlue pilot was startled when he spotted a white drone off his aircraft鈥檚 left wing. Just hours later, a quadcopter drone whizzed underneath an Allegiant Air flight on the same runway.
Close encounters between rogue drones and aircraft were unheard of last year, 聽reports.聽So far this year, nearly 700 incidents have been reported 鈥斅爐riple the number of total events last year.
But as more people buy these mostly unregulated aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration聽deals with more reports of close encounters. Back in February, the agency set out preliminary rules about what types of unmanned aircraft can be flown and where.
