US Drone Device Registration Compulsory For Drone Owners

The US government has made it mandatory for drone owners to register their devices with the US Department of Transportation. The government is making more stringent norms to regulate such devices tightly, said The Independent.

The new regulations are expected to be effective from Christmas as the government will work with drone manufacturers and owners to create a system for drone registration. Christmas happens to be the most popular season for presenting such gifts, said NBC News.

Industry officials estimate that there are hundreds of thousands of recreational drones in the country. One FAA official said last month that some officials expect more than 1 million drones to be sold around Christmas this year. The Transportation Department said it plans to make a drone-related announcement on Monday but declined to comment further, said Fox News.

Governments around the world are getting worried about the increasing popularity of drones as they have recently disrupted air traffic as well as flown into sensitive areas. The Federal Aviation Administration said pilots spotted drones while flying more than 650 times this year through Aug. 9, up from 238 sightings in nearly all of 2014, said Fox News.

The US government is one of the first to take steps to introduce full registration and regulation. Although, the House of Lords in EU called earlier in March to introduce the system of registration for drones but the plans have stalled, said The Independent.

In the UK, drones do not have to get compulsorily registered however; they do have to take special flying permissions from Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Use of drones was practically unheard of a few years earlier but they have become one of the most popular sports in recent years.

In July this year, a jet in New York carrying 159 people on board narrowly avoided a collission with a drone as it came to land at New York's JFK airport.