Last year, DJI became the first drone manufacturer in the world to submit and earn US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval for Remote ID protocol compliance. At the time, as many as seven of its popular drone models secured the FAA nod for adequate compliance with the Remote ID rule. Today, that list is much longer. But now, in another first, DJI has also become the only drone maker to have a previously-approved compliance status rescinded by the FAA.
According to the FAA, it has rescinded the declaration of compliance (DOC) for the DJI Mavic Pro Platinum drone with immediate effect.
Also read: Which Autel Robotics drones are approved for FAA Remote ID?
But why did the agency take this drastic decision? Here’s the whole, rather curious story…
The FAA has established a set of rules using which drone makers use to ensure their products meet the minimum performance requirements of the Remote ID rule. The agency, in turn, relies on a DOC produced by the manufacturer to ensure everything is in order.
On January 19, 2023, the FAA evaluated and accepted a DOC application with the assigned tracking number of RID000000111 appearing to be from DJI for the Mavic Pro Platinum drone.
But a month later, DJI wrote to FAA explaining that the group of products listed in the DOC application with the assigned tracking number RID000000111 were, in fact, not compliant with the performance requirements of the Remote ID rule. And as such, the company itself requested the FAA for a rescission of the already accepted DOC.
DJI’s subsequent internal review of the incident determined that the employee listed as the contact on the application was not even handling Remote ID certification responsibilities when the DOC was submitted. Not just that, the DJI employee in question claimed he did not submit the application for the Mavic Pro Platinum in the first place.
The FAA is continuing to investigate the matter. But in the meantime, the Remote ID status for the drone stands rescinded.
Related: Singapore to deploy 50 drone Remote ID sensors covering entire city-state
Now, it’s not clear if DJI ever plans to release firmware making Mavic Pro Platinum compliant with the FAA’s Remote ID rules. As of now, from its list of so-called “legacy” products, the drone maker has only confirmed to be working on the Mavic Air 2, Mavic 2 Zoom, and Mavic 2 Pro.
In the meantime, you can see this complete and updated list of all DJI drones that have been approved by the FAA for adequate compliance with the Remote ID rule.
Read more: CubePilot’s $39 solution for FAA drone Remote ID compliance.
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