Welcome to your weekly UAS news update we have 4 stories for you: NTSB Prelim out for Drone Show Accident, Regulatory Freeze, Possible DJI Release List for 2025, and a new Connecticut Drone bill.
00:00 Introduction
00:18 NTSB Prelim Investigation out for Drone Show Accident
01:29 Regulatory Freeze
02:52 Possible DJI Release List for 2025
03:35 Connecticut Drone Bill
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First up, as with other changes in presidential administrations, there is now a freeze on unreleased NPRMs.
This means that upcoming NPRMs, such as the supposed Part 108 and changes to MOSAIC, the sport pilot rule, are delayed until an appointed department or agency head can review the proposed rule.
This means that we may have to wait a few more months for the FAA to release an NPRM on BVLOS operations as required by the FAA Reauthorization Act.
It does not appear that the regulatory freeze will affect folks who have a 44807 exemption in progress on the public docket.
The previous FAA Administrator resigned on the 20th, so we’ll likely see an upcoming nomination for a new FAA Admin.
We’ll keep you updated when that happens!
Next, the NTSB has released the prelim report on the drone show accident in Orlando, FL.
If you’re unfamiliar with this story, an accident occurred during a drone show on Dec. 21st, 2024 after a drone struck and seriously injuring a child watching the show.
The NTSB has released their prelim report with some information into potential causes of the accident.
According to the NTSB Report, a few errors were made by the operator including that the show position was rotated approximately 7 degrees, the center was misaligned, and that the final flight paths were not fully uploaded to the aircraft.
This misalignment of the show resulted in the hard fence, which kills the drone if it goes out of the intended area, to be too close to the crowd.
In addition to this, the hard fence was set to be 5 meters rather than the company standard of 1 meter outside the primary geofence.
Approximately 43 aircraft were recovered and sent to the NTSB’s lab in Washington DC.
At this point, it’s still unclear what caused multiple drones to fly away from the show area and towards bystanders.
If you’d like to read the full report, we’ll leave a link to the NTSB’s website below.
Next up, DJI Leaker AsitaLV has revealed that DJI supposedly has 6 more products to release this year including a new Mavic!
As reported by DroneXL, the leaked product list including the Mavic 4 Pro, Mini 5 Pro, Matrice 400A, DJI Dock 3, Action 6, and Osmo Nano.
There are currently no rumored specs past the Mavic 4 but we’ll keep you up to date when we see more!
Last up, Connecticut has released a bill that would prohibit state agencies from purchasing Chinese Drones.
This bill includes items other than drone usage, and the full bill text is not currently available.
The current test says “provide that neither the state nor any state agency, state contractor or municipality shall purchase or use any aerial drone manufactured in the People’s Republic of China or the Russian Federation”.
If you’re in Connecticut and this would affect you, be sure to reach out to your state legislators.
Join us later today for our happy hour in the community, Live Q&A on Monday, and Post Flight Monday in the community! We’ll see you then!
https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/GenerateNewestReport/199458/pdf
https://dronexl.co/2025/01/16/ntsb-failed-data-transfer-orlando-drone-show-accident/
https://www.cga.ct.gov/2025/TOB/S/PDF/2025SB-00003-R00-SB.PDF
https://dronexl.co/2025/01/15/dji-2025-roadmap-6-new-products/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/regulatory-freeze-pending-review/
