The FAA's airport-drone reports jumped 88% last quarter. The raw data needs context.
The FAA's workbooks contain 600 report records for April through June, up from 319 in the prior quarter but slightly below the same period in 2025.
Decision brief
A report is not a confirmed violation, and the spring increase largely returns the count to last year's level. Near airports, authorization never replaces yielding to crewed aircraft, maintaining visual line of sight, and staying away from active traffic.
- Q2 records
- 600
- Quarter change
- +88%
- Year change
- -3%
April through June 2026
Compared with 319 in Q1
Compared with 616 in Q2 2025
What changed
Spring reports climbed fast, then landed near last year's level.
The FAA's April-to-June 2026 workbook contains 600 date-bearing report records, compared with 319 in the January-to-March workbook. Drone Authority counted the records directly and excluded each sheet's header row. That is an 88 percent quarter-over-quarter increase, but it is not an unprecedented annual surge: the same spring quarter in 2025 contains 616 records.
The growth accelerated through the quarter. The workbook contains 135 records in April, 222 in May, and 243 in June. California appears most often with 95 records, followed by New York with 43, New Jersey with 40, and Texas and Illinois with 39 each. Those totals describe reported locations, not confirmed causes or violations.
Read carefully
The workbook records reports, not verdicts.
The dataset is a report log, not a case-disposition database. The FAA says it receives possible-sighting reports from pilots, citizens, and law enforcement, and the spreadsheet narratives are labeled preliminary. A row does not establish who operated the aircraft, whether the object was correctly identified, or whether the flight was unauthorized.
Pilot response
Authorization is one layer of airport-area safety.
The reports still reveal a real aviation-safety problem. Many narratives describe drones near approach paths or at altitudes that would put them close to crewed aircraft. Remote pilots must yield the right of way, keep the drone within visual line of sight, and avoid interfering with airport operations even when the launch has an airspace authorization.
Near controlled airports, use an FAA-approved LAANC provider or DroneZone when authorization is required, then check NOTAMs, TFRs, and the actual traffic environment before launch. If a crewed aircraft approaches, move clear and land when necessary. LAANC authorizes access to a volume of controlled airspace; it does not certify that a particular moment, route, or launch site is safe.
Source file
Verify the reporting
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