In what is probably the first real justification for FAA regulation of model aircraft activities, the National Transportation Safety Board has found that the RC pilot is at fault for the collision at a flying event in Colorado in August 2010. This marks the first time (that I’ve seen) the NTSB and FAA have publicly admonished the RC community for using the National Airspace and causing damage.
It is difficult to say whether this will set precedent with the FAA and NTSB, but I believe this is the first concrete step in bringing the full weight of federal regulations into the RC community. This is not a good thing for the hobby, but as this event showed just one person doing something anywhere with an RC craft in the NAS is likely to draw attention from regulators. We will have to wait until the summer of 2011 before we find out the full impact of this incident and the FAA’s decision on whether to regulate and how much the RC community.
Full details of the NTSB report can be found here.