The FAA has replaced its January ban on drone flights near federal vehicles with a warning, dropping the threat of criminal prosecution. Notice FDC 6/2824, issued on 15 April 2026, tells pilots to avoid flying near federal assets and to “exercise caution”. It sets no distances.
The notice it replaced, FDC 6/4375, was issued on 16 January. It barred drones within 3,000 feet laterally and 1,000 feet above vehicles and facilities of the departments of Defense, Energy and Homeland Security. It cited criminal penalties and was due to run until October 2027.
Pilots had no way to comply with it reliably, its challengers argued, since many federal vehicles are unmarked. Rob Levine, a Minneapolis photojournalist, said he stopped flying because of it. With the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press he asked the D.C. Circuit on 16 March to review the notice, in Levine v. FAA.
On 10 April they asked the court to suspend the ban on flights near Homeland Security vehicles. Five days later the FAA replaced the notice. The agency said it acted “to clarify drone operations based on user feedback”.
The new notice keeps one warning. Federal agencies may interfere with, seize, damage or destroy a drone they judge to be a credible threat.
Grayson Clary, the Reporters Committee’s lawyer, had called the original order “an egregious overreach”. Of the reversal he said “this kind of arbitrary back-and-forth” was the problem, and the group kept the case going to get a ruling that the ban was unlawful.
It is still open. On 4 September the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the National Press Photographers Association filed a brief backing Levine. They argued that the FAA can still punish flights made between January and April and could bring the ban back. The court has not yet scheduled oral argument.
