U.S. announced mandatory registration of drones

The registration will be carried according to the program that will require drones to be registered with the U.S. Department of Transportation, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced on Monday at a press conference today in Washington D.C., Joinfo.ua reports with the reference to Techcrunch.

The department will create the procedure of registration by the middle of November, with a registration being implemented before the end of December.

Foxx said that registration will reinforce the need for hobbyists and drone operators to learn the airspace rules before they fly, and use their devices safely. Secondly, he noted that registration will allow these rules to be enforced, and let the FAA identify any operator who breaks these rules.

The agency said that while it is currently easy to locate the actual drone that may have violated illegal airspace, it’s difficult to find the operator of the offending drone, and this registration will close that loophole.

This announcement comes after a sharp rise in “near misses” between aircrafts and drones throughout the U.S. over the last year. Most of these incidents are happening near major airports, even though most major drone manufacturers, including DJI, have now programmed their devices to not be able to take off when near a U.S. or International airport.