CHULA VISTA, Calif.,
March 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/
-- Skyfire Consulting, the country's premier public safety UAV
consultancy, announced today FAA approval for the first active
emergency response Certificate of Authorization with a Beyond
Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) provision for public safety as part of
the FAA's IPP program.
Working on behalf of the Chula
Vista Police Department with the support of the City of San Diego, and in partnership with
software company Cape, Skyfire authored an extensive safety and
risk mitigation analysis that cleared the way for the police
department to operate its drones over a much larger area within its
jurisdiction.
"This authorization truly pushes the boundaries of what's
possible for public safety agencies with drones," said Ben Kroll, Skyfire's COO, and lead on the
Chula Vista project. "It wouldn't
have been possible without the immense support of the FAA's IPP
team and our very dedicated and patient partners at CVPD, Cape, and
the City of San Diego."
Since October 2018, Chula Vista Police Department has operated the
nation's first Drone as a First Responder program in partnership
with Cape, where drones are integrated into daily emergency
response operations as part of the San Diego Unmanned Aircraft
Systems (UAS) Integration Pilot Program (IPP). Since its launch,
CVPD drones equipped with the Cape Aerial Telepresence platform
have conducted more than 300 flights, accounting for more than 80
hours of flight time without incident or accident, and have
contributed to more than 40 arrests. The new authorization, which
went into effect March 15, 2019, will
increase the total footprint of coverage for emergency response
operations from a three to nearly 40-square-mile area. Compared to
the current regulation, which prevents the drone from being flown
beyond the Pilot-in-Command's (PIC) line of sight, CVPD will now be
able to operate drones up to three nautical miles from the PIC, or
more than 10 times the previous coverage area.
Today, Cape-enabled drones are dispatched to high-priority calls
from the CVPD headquarters. The drone's onboard camera live streams
HD video to the teleoperator in the command center, who can
maneuver the drone and the camera remotely in real-time in order to
gain the exact visibility needed. With the drone typically arriving
on scene well before responding ground units, the command center
can better identify and dispatch needed resources to the scene.
Responding officers can also view the live stream en route to the
scene on their mobile devices, giving them full visibility of the
situation to which they are responding.
"This COA is a recognition of the vision our industry has been
striving for, to allow drones to arrive on scene before we put law
enforcement officers and firefighters in harm's way," said
Kroll.
Skyfire's partnership with Chula
Vista Police Department, Cape, and the San Diego IPP team is
the latest example of the company's mission to improve the lives of
first responders, and the safety of the public, using UAVs.
Skyfire's team of pilots, project managers and intelligence
analysts recently became the first team to provide live streaming
aerial video to law enforcement agencies during the NFL's biggest
game this past February.
About Skyfire Consulting
Skyfire Consulting is the nation's premier public safety UAV
consulting company, specializing in drone sales, pilot training,
FAA consulting, SOP development and service and repairs for public
safety agencies around the country. Skyfire is a division of
Atlanta Drone Group, Inc., and is headquartered in Decatur,
Georgia.
For more information on Skyfire, visit
SkyfireConsulting.com or contact:
Matt Sloane
matt@skyfireconsulting.com
404-723-5621
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