State Farm is the first company in the United States to receive a national waiver by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for drone operations beyond visual line of sight and operations over people. The FAA waiver will allow State Farm claims pilots to conduct drone flights for catastrophe damage assessment anywhere in the United States through November 2022. This is a huge step forward for damages assessment. I would expect other insurance companies to follow — State Farm having paved the way.
For their operations they have two types of drones, fixed wing and helicopter (quad?). For more information, see
State Farm Granted First National FAA Waiver for Damage Assessment Drone Flights.
The infograph below provides the timeline in this process toward approval. Not overnight, but they are the first!
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.
