Angry birds: MLB wants ‘more robust’ drone laws after recent aerial incursions (2024)

If Major League Baseball approves hedge fund tycoon Steve Cohen’s $2.4 billion offer to buy the New York Mets, he won’t get missiles, lasers, anti-aircraft guns, or trained attack birds at Citi Field.

The ballpark is one of several American sports venues to employ passive anti-drone technology that identifies the presence of unmanned aerial vehicles – a formal term for drones – and the location of their pilots, but federal aviation and communications laws do not permit the Mets or anyone else to seize control of them – or to blow them out of the sky.

Drones are a topic in sports lately after a series of incursions by the little remote-operated flying machines, often mounted with a high-def camera and powered by batteries, briefly halted MLB games in Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium and Target Field since August.

The most recent incident was a seven-minute delay on Sept. 16 when a small drone landed in the outfield at Wrigley Field in the fifth inning of a Cubs-Indians game, which saw officials clear both teams off the field until the drone flew away.

It’s illegal under federal law to fly drones over a ballpark or sporting event, and it’s also illegal to try to jam their signals or take them down, leaving teams with limited options to mitigate the threat while avoiding liability issues.

Drone use by the public has increased 100 percent during the pandemic, industry experts have said, and total sales of mostly Chinese-made hobby drones to the American public has topped more than 1.7 million registered vehicles, per Federal Aviation Administration data. That includes 1.2 million recreational drones (such as the one that grossly sliced up pitcher Trevor Bauer’s pinky ahead of the 2016 World Series) and almost 500,000 commercial drones.

Baseball said it’s lobbying the federal government for help to counter drone incursions but declined to offer specifics of what it would like.

Here is MLB’s statement on drones: “The FAA has a Temporary Flight Restriction in place over Major League ballparks on game days, which includes a general prohibition on drone operations.Along with other impacted organizations, MLB is actively involved in discussions with the FAA, the DOJ, the FBI, Homeland Security, and other relevant federal agencies to seek additional help in preventing unauthorized drone flights over outdoor professional sporting events.

“Each ballpark has a response plan in place if an unauthorized drone flight becomes a safety or security issue, including attempts to identify the pilot of the unauthorized flight, but drones are considered aircraft and the same Federal laws restricting interference with manned aircraft currently apply to drones.There are additional Title 18 prohibitions and FCC regulations that further restrict the ability to deploy counter-drone technology.MLB is diligently pursuing appropriate federal Congressional action to legally enable more robust mitigation efforts. But in the meantime, it is important for drone hobbyists to understand that flying drones over stadiums during games is dangerous, against the law, and could subject them to criminal prosecution and civil liability.In five instances this season, Umpires have responded to these incidents appropriately and in accordance with our protocols.”

Counter-drone companies caution that it’s dangerous for non-government/military clients to try to interfere with drones or to shoot them down with guns, energy beams, nets and other technology that is currently limited to police, military and other agencies that protect critical infrastructure.

Instead, they recommend teams, leagues and venues stick with passive technology such as sensors and cameras that alert clients to the presence and locations of drones and allows security or police to track down the drone pilots.

“To neutralize a drone – it would be perceived as the same as hijacking a commercial aircraft,” said Amit Samani, vice president of enterprise sales at San Francisco-based Dedrone Holdings Inc., which has the counter-drone contract at Citi Field and has done drone work for the PGA Tour, auto racing, rugby and other sports work in addition to some 400 government and commercial installations.

“Apprehending the pilot is most suitable scenario. Not everyone is a bad guy. Most people just don’t know,” he said, adding that he thinks education will take care of most drone issues.

The New York Mets or some other teams blasting a drone out of the sky – or using a trained eagle to intercept it, as European police and militaries have experimented with – opens them to liability.

“What people need to understand is, when a drone is taken out of the sky, it has to come down somewhere,” Samani said. “What would happen if that drone crashed and hit a spectator?”

That said, the initial impulse from companies and organizations when it comes to drones usually is to take them down, he said. And that’s growing as drones proliferate and people remain stuck at home and unable to attend sporting events.

“The problem is persistent and is definitely escalating,” Samani said. “Where there is a drone overhead, people just start to freak out.”

Dedrone conducted drone monitoring tests over seven airports globally for more than 200 days over 2018-19 and in that time 380 drones were recorded, Samani said.

Federal law allows only the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department to shoot down drones. Local police can be granted permission under certain circ*mstances. The military has a wide variety of anti-drone technology for combat deployments overseas.

Unless the laws are changed, private companies and organizations are better served by employing the passive technology that tracks drones and pilots and creates data patterns to identify potential incursions. Tracking should begin well ahead of an event or game because drone users often take three or four practice flights ahead of time when the stadium or site is less protected.

“If you use the technology in an appropriate way, you can easily defend the asset and stay within the laws,” he said.

The recent spike in MLB drone incidents is expected to fuel a wave of counter-drone technology investments across sports, Samani added.

“Over the next 12 to 24 months you’re doing to see every major stadium start to invest in this technology,” he said.

It’s not just MLB affected. Arrests were made last year when drones were flown over the University of Michigan’s football season opener. Drones have been confiscated and pilots arrested at recent Super Bowls, and one crashed into empty seats at Petco Park during a Padres game in 2017. That year also saw a drone pilot arrested for dropping leaflets over San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders games. And in 2015, a drone tumbled into the seats at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in Queens, N.Y., and police arrested the pilot.

The New York Giants added the AirWarden Drone Detection System from Holmdel, N.J.-based AeroDefense in 2018 at MetLife Stadium.

“This has not been a major issue for us so far.The AeroDefense system seems to work well.Obviously, we are aware that drone usage is increasing, and we will continue to monitor this going forward,” said John Mara, the Giants co-owner and top executive, via email.

While no one will disclose specifics or numbers, the technology has halted drone incursions at MetLife.

“There have been more than several incidents they have been able to disrupt,” said Lexi Rinaudo, AeroDefense’s marketing manager.

There’s been a sharp spike in teams and sports inquiring about AeroDefense’s technology, she said, but declined to disclose names. Dedrone’s Samani said the same thing – sports clients are expected to be a growth market.

Most counter-drone systems are predicating on identifying the presence of radio frequency signals unique to drones, using a series of antennas mounted around the stadium or event site. Ballpark operations and security staff get audible, visual, text and email alerts when a drone is spotted and a user interface on a mobile device, tablet or computer provides the drone and pilot locations.

The idea is that the security and police assigned to the ballpark can track down the pilot to decide if there is nefarious intent or if the person simply is ignorant of the laws that forbid flights near stadiums during games.

The counter-drone technology has to be able to sift through the presence of a vast array of RF signals in and around a stadium, which emanate from Wi-Fi, mobile devices, and other technology. Some systems are able to account for permissible drones, such as those used by Fox for its golf broadcasts.

Identification of the vehicle and pilot is the safest way to handle drone incursion, Rinaudo said, because “mitigating a drone” – tech speak for jamming its signals or shooting it down – raises liability concerns because it could crash into people on the ground.

“It can be a pretty dangerous situation, which is why that authority (to force down drones) is not given out freely,” she said. “What we’re saying with our system, you can locate the drone and pilot now. You don’t need legal approval for it. It’s really the safest way to mitigate a drone threat.”

While drones can represent a dangerous threat as a weapon, or even be used by an opposing team trying to spy, most incidents at sports venues are out of ignorance, Rinaudo said.

“The majority are just clueless, careless hobbyist pilots,” she said.

Nearly 40 percent of drone operators say they have little or no familiarly with civilian drone regulations, according to an August poll of drone pilots by data intelligence firm Morning Consult.

At MetLife, most drone incidents have been during other events rather than Giants or Jets games, she said.

“It’s either people just trying to get a peek at the action or people might not be aware anything is going on at the stadium,” Rinaudo said. “There haven’t been any nefarious incidents at stadiums thus far.”

The PGA Tour declined to comment, citing privacy of its security techniques, but tour events have been known to employ anti-drone technology. The country’s other large open-air pro sport, Major League Soccer, didn’t respond to a question about its anti-drone efforts. Its matches this summer included ESPN drone coverage as part of broadcasts. A message was also left on Wednesday for the Mets, and for the NFL about its position on drone laws, but the league didn’t respond.

(Photo: Raj Mehta / USA Today)