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"  Tuesday afternoon, a UAV plummeted from the sky on the East side of Manhattan. This wasn&amp;#039;t a massive military drone, but a three-pound quadcopter that almost struck an unsuspecting businessman during rush hour, who removed the memory card from the downed drone and reported the incident to police. According to New York&amp;#039;s ABC 7, the man &amp;quot;called the police who took a look at the drone video, but did no further investigation because they said no law was broken.&amp;quot; Could They Have Found the Perpetrator? Even if the NYPD decided that the drone operator had broken a law, quadrocopters are not FAA certified, and therefore couldn&amp;#039;t be tracked unless through sales records, if the drones parts had ID numbers.  &amp;quot;It would be like finding a needle in a haystack,&amp;quot; says Nick Ernst, an engineering tech for Parallax, Inc., manufacturer of the ELEV-8 quadcopter. It doesn&amp;#039;t appear that the drone in question was one of Parallax&amp;#039;s, but if it were, it is possible Parallax could discern the owner based on sales records. But several distributors also sell the drone, which makes the situation much more difficult. &amp;quot;People who are responsible RCers will have a name and number on the device so they can be reached,&amp;quot; Ernst says, &amp;quot;but some hobbyists don&amp;#039;t think that far ahead.&amp;quot; Is This a Crime? The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations on mom-and-pop drones can be a little complex, the FAA says owners should fly UAVs no higher than 400-ft and a keep safe distance from heavily populated areas, such as, you know, Manhattan. There are a few ways to overcome the 400-ft flight restriction. Universities, police departments, and aerospace companies can apply for a Certificate of Authorization or Waiver. The number of these certificates issued has doubled in the last five years.  However, video pulled from this aircraft&amp;#039;s memory card looks more like footage taken by a drunken drone, crashing into buildings and falling hundreds of feet, than by a research vehicle. And though no one was hurt and no legal action is being pursued, this incident represents something that will become a major issue in coming years.  In a radio interview this March, Mayor Mike Bloomberg told New Yorkers that more UAVs are coming. &amp;quot;This is something society has to think about and not by writing a quick piece of legislation,&amp;quot; Bloomberg says. &amp;quot;These are long-term, serious problems.&amp;quot; The FAA predicts that in 20 years, 30,000 drones will be operating in the United States. Congress has been a major proponent UAVs, mandating that the FAA integrate them into the national airspace system by 2015. This has many politicians worried about potential fourth amendment violations and other policy issues, but now we might need to add potential head trauma to the list. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/drones/a9520/if-a-drone-falls-in-manhattan-does-anyone-get-in-trouble-15999895/>