Nobody is saying that was a UAV near miss, but:
The current rule making for UAVs in US airspace deserves close watching. Cripes, all the larger sophisticated military drones are designed with stealth features, which presumably work. That is not going to mix well with the civil air traffic and ATC system.
If you run a Predator over Baltimore it will behave like a guy in a Turbo Centurion blowing through on autopilot, passed out drunk in the cockpit. Only the UAV isn't painting a primary return on radar. Is that a safety issue? Ahem... Maybe they'll be required to use Mode C in civilian airspace. So much for the stealth $$$... but it would at least give us a running start at not running over them.
And the problem with the smaller law enforcement drones is, as soon as you get them out of small arms range around 1000ft they're in general aviation airspace.
And the little ones are harder to see than the big ones.
Here's hoping the FAA treads carefully here. I think they have until 2015 to write and implement most of the new rules. It's kind of a big deal with big implications -- not just for privacy but for air safety, seems to me.
