Two Newark Airport Stores Will No Longer Sell Drones

It isn’t just the skies around Newark Liberty International that have been seeing drones lately — until recently, two stores inside the airport were selling unmanned aerial vehicles.

NJ.com wondered why the airport that’s had a recent spate of drone sightings in the air space used by commercial aircraft would offer the flying objects for sale — especially since some folks might be concerned over the possible danger of a drone interfering with an airplane’s flight.

Though it’s unclear whether there were any limits on the sale of drones at an airport, two stores that were selling drones will be pulling them from shelves. Brookstone had offered a drone equipped with a 1080 pixel HD camera, and a smaller version without a camera, and Hudson News reportedly had a table of remote-controlled flying objects for sale.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said on Tuesday that it would demand both companies stop selling drones “immediately.”

“The Port Authority shares the aviation community’s safety concerns about the growing presence of drones around the region’s airports and is strongly opposed to the sale of drones at terminal shops,” a Port Authority spokesman said in a statement.

A Hudson Group spokeswoman said the items were toys, but said the chain would remove them.

“We’re not here to cause panic in the streets,” she told NJ.com. “If it is uncomfortable for customers or the airport, we will do what we always do in that situation, and that’s remove them. And that’s what I’m going to recommend we do.”

Drones terrify pilots, so why are they sold at Newark airport? [NJ.com]

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