Deleted document shows possible FAA regulations on drones

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- A document said to have been accidentally published by the FAA shows some of the regulations on commercial drones that may be coming.

The document was first spotted on Regulations.gov by Steve Zeets, who filed a petition for exemption from FAA rules last year.

"Once I opened the document, I called a colleague," Zeets told Forbes. "He went to the website while we were still on the phone and couldn't find the document. I still had it open so I saved a copy to pdf."

A source confirmed the contents of the document to Bloomberg News.

The document provides an economic analysis of widespread adoption of the remotely piloted aircraft, and says the United States could generate $100 million and lives could be saved when drones hit the skies.

Drones could save lives, the document says, by allowing people to use them for jobs that are dangerous for humans, like working on tall cellphone towers. Many have also considered how drones can be used for surveillance for rescue missions and things like fighting fires or airlifting injured people.

The possible regulations say Americans will not need a pilot license to fly a drone, and drone flight will have to be 500 feet in the air or lower.

Companies like Amazon are looking forward to the FAA's commercial drone regulations, because they're hoping to use them to deliver products. Some experts say the federal government is worried about an influx of drones, as they could be used as weapons.