Hobbyist drone owners have flown too close to the fire for the last time: the US government announced this morning that it would require some publicly available drone aircraft to be registered to their owners, a move prompted by the growing number of reported close calls and incidents that pose safety risks, officials announced Monday.

The goal, said transportation secretary Anthony Foxx, was to identify exactly who was using what drone, and where. “Finding the drone has not been as much of a problem as finding the person who was using the drone,” said Foxx.

Pilot sightings of drones have doubled since last year, including some near manned aircraft and major sporting events, and others interfering with wildfire-fighting operations, notably in California, Foxx said in a press conference on Monday.



“We’ve seen unmanned aircraft doing much to interfere and not help with our lives,” Foxx said. “We must work ever harder to ensure a strong culture of safety and accountability among users.”

“These reports signal a troubling trend,” Federal Aviation Administration chief Michel Huerta said at a news conference to announce the step. Registration will increase pressure on drone operators to fly responsibly, he said, adding: “When they don’t fly safely, they’ll know there will be consequences.”

To work out details, the FAA and the Transportation Department are setting up a 25- to 30-member taskforce including government and industry officials and hobbyists. They will recommend which drones should be required to register and which should be exempted, and design a system that would be easy for commercial operators to comply with, the department said.

Toys and small drones that don’t present a safety threat are likely to be exempt. Drones that weigh only a pound or two or that can’t fly higher than a few hundred feet are considered less risky. Heavier ones and those that can fly to thousands of feet pose more of a problem.

There is no official count of how many drones have been sold in the US, but industry officials say it is in the hundreds of thousands and will easily pass a million by the end of the year.

Foxx directed the taskforce to deliver its report by 20 November. The Consumer Electronics Association has forecast that 700,000 drones will be sold this holiday season, and Foxx said it’s especially important that new drone users be taught the responsibilities that come with flying.

Registering drones that could pose safety risks “makes sense, but it should not become a prohibitive burden for recreational users who fly for fun and educational purposes and who have operated harmoniously within our communities for decades”, Dave Mathewson, executive director of the Academy for Model Aeronautics, said in a statement.

The FAA now receives about 100 reports a month from pilots who say they have seen drones flying near planes and airports, compared to only a few sightings per month last year. So far there have been no accidents, but agency officials have said they are concerned that even a drone weighing only a few pounds might cause serious damage if it is sucked into an engine or smashes into an airliner’s windshield.

In cases where drones have crashed where they were not supposed to be flying – at crowded sports stadiums, for example – it has been difficult to find the operators.

The FAA signed an agreement last month with CACI International Inc, an information technology company in Arlington, Virginia, to test technology that could locate the operators of small drones that are flying illegally near airports. The technology would let the government track radio signals used to operate drones within a 5-mile (8km) radius and identify the operator’s location.