The North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT) has announced that it has received a four-year waiver from the FAA to operate UAS over people.

According to NDDOT, this is the first time that a North Dakota state agency has received a waiver to routinely conduct UAS operations over people. The approval was for a DJI Mavic 2 series equipped with a ParaZero SafeAir parachute recovery system.

The waiver was approved as part of North Dakota’s UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP). Through the program, NDDOT and the Northern Plains UAS Test Site (NPUASTS) are working with partners and stakeholders to accomplish North Dakota’s UAS pilot program mission to “provide operational efficiencies, create new opportunities, build industry to grow the economy, and reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries.”

“Safety is a critical aspect in increasing UAS’ legal flight envelope. We are honored that NDDOT is the first to secure a waiver for flight over people with our new ASTM F3322 compliant SafeAir Mavic,” says Avi Lozowick, vice president of Policy and Strategy at ParaZero.

Russ Buchholz, UAS Integration Program administrator at NDDOT, says, “NDDOT is excited to work with Northern Plains UAS Test Site and one of our program partners, ParaZero, to advance research focusing on safe operations of Unmanned Aircraft Systems. We are testing UAS systems and looking at how we can have safe operations that are repeatable and scalable in different types of situations.”