Guide to Handling Unidentified Drone Sightings (Civilians, Law Enforcement, etc.)

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ultimate guide to handling unidentified drone sightings
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Trying to figure out what is going on in the sky? Think it is a drone? Trying to figure out if you should be alarmed or not? I’ll explain to you how to go about handling it based on my years of experience as an FAA-certified commercial pilot, flight instructor, and practicing drone attorney with hundreds of clients (some of which are law enforcement).

Step 1. Is the unidentified object a manned aircraft?

Many manned aircraft transmit radio signals. There are prebuilt receivers out there that cost money. You can even build a DIY sensor if you want. You can receive these signals at various free websites:

Instructions:

  1. From your location, get a compass heading to the target. There are compass apps you can put on your phone to help figure out the heading.
  2. Open up one of the websites and figure out your location.
  3. See if there are any manned aircraft flying in that direction.

Keep in mind that not ALL manned aircraft must transmit radio signals. There are thousands of manned aircraft out there flying around legally all day long that are not required to transmit radio signals. See 14 CFR 91.215 and 91.225.

If you come up with nothing, let’s go to the next step.

Step 2. Is it a drone?

The vast majority of drones flying in the United States MUST transmit remote identification signals. See 14 CFR Part 89.  However, there are SOME aircraft that are not required to transmit these signals such as:

  • Drones 250 grams and less.
  • Drones flying in FAA-recognized identification areas (FRIA). To rule out this situation
    1. Go to this FAA website.  https://faa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=9c2e4406710048e19806ebf6a06754ad
    2. Type in your address in the top left.
    3. Zoom out and figure out if there are any FRIAs off in the direction you saw the object. There is a button at the top right that has a legend. It can help you figure it out. It’s the “Recreational Flyer Fixed Site” It’s a blue circle but that is just an example. These FRIAs can take different shapes in real life.  Click on the area on the map and it will pop up with a box and tell you if it is a FRIA or not.
  • The military or law enforcement operating under a waiver.

To receive these signals, you can download an app to your phone. Search in your app store for something like “remote identification receiver.” Note that some of these apps may have problems working on your phone. I won’t get into all of the technical reasons here but just note you may have to try a few different apps and maybe even purchase a dedicated receiver.  Here is one I know some have used. https://dronetag.com/apps/

You can also purchase dedicated prebuilt remote ID receivers.

Open up the receiver, and try and identify the object.  If the drone is broadcasting signals, it will show the aircraft’s location and altitude. It will also show either the ground controller location or the take-off position. This can give you an idea of who might be operating it.

There are been numerous reports of the phone apps having problems. Before going to the next step, you really should see if you or a friend can go fly a drone with remote ID to validate that you are receiving signals. You can figure out if your drone has remote ID by looking at this list. https://uasdoc.faa.gov/listDocs

Nothing?

Step 3. Analyze the Situation

Things to keep in mind:

  • Unless you validated the remote ID receiver, it could be not working correctly. Before doing anything further or calling anyone, you should find a reliable receiver and verify it by testing it against a known remote ID transmitter.
  •  The drone may be far away and you see its lights. These can travel at farther ranges than the radio frequencies in certain locations. You may have a lot of radio frequency traffic in the area (high noise floor), which makes it difficult for your receiver to receive the signals.
  • If you see lights on the object, that appears to show they are trying to comply with 14 CFR 107.29. Or it could be a bad guy trying to appear lawful.  If the lights are on, it can go either way. If the lights are OFF, then that means it is most likely they are not lawfully flying. Yes, military and law enforcement sometimes get approvals to fly with their lights out but it is pretty rare. If you are looking at a military operations area, you could be witnessing military aircraft doing lights-out training.
  • Flying near an airport is not ALWAYS illegal. The FAA has granted over 1 million authorizations for drones to fly near airports.  See FAA news release. I remember getting approval for a client to fly right off the end of a large active runway of a major airport everyone in the United States knows of. It can be done lawfully.
  • Drones are limited to flying at 400ft for most operations. See 14 CFR 107.51 and 49 USC 44809. Studies out there show that it is really hard to accurately estimate the altitude of a drone. Making size estimations and altitude estimations of a drone, especially at night, is really unreliable. Unless you have some radar, altitude estimates or size estimates are useless.
  • Flying in warning, alert, and military operations areas is NOT illegal. These are on maps to WARN pilots that there are potential dangers in this area and they should do risk management.

Things that would indicate that the drone is most likely illegal (For each of these, there are scenarios where it can be lawful but unlikely):

  • Flying in flight restrictions
  • Flying in active restricted areas.
  • Flying without lights
  • A drone flying without transmitting remote ID signals.  How do you determine manned from unmanned? That’s kinda hard.
    • A manned aircraft flying in a direction towards you can give the appearance that it is a drone hovering. However, after watching for quite a while, the light should move rapidly as the aircraft moves on. However, it could also be a law enforcement helicopter or news chopper just hovering over a location.
    • A manned aircraft will have a solid red light on its left side and a solid green on its right side.  It will also have either a flashing red light and/or flashing white lights. If you see this, it most likely is a manned aircraft. The absence of the solid red and green position lights does not mean you have a drone, you just might not be at an angle to see the lights on the manned aircraft.

Ultimately, you are going to take all of these facts together to make a guestimate. It’s like poker. You are going to make a decision without all of the information. Your situation could be one of the following:

  • A legal manned aircraft flying in an area that does not require ADS-B radio transmission or radio transponder transmission. There are literally thousands of aircraft out there that do not have ADS-B transmitters and are not required to transmit.
  • It’s an unmanned aircraft that is flying for the federal government or law enforcement.
  • It is an illegal drone flight and law enforcement should investigate.

Extra Resources

“I wanna shoot the drone down, is that legal?” There are many issues here. I have a huge article on the issues surrounding attacking and destroying the drone. https://jrupprechtlaw.com/drone-jammer-gun-defender-legal-problems/

Here are some videos discussing all of the issues that surround HOW we can go about fixing this situation. There are alot of topics that are involved in counter drone technology.

    • My Interview on CBS.