What? You mean just like guns, bombs, planes, cars, cameras, binoculars, camcorders, etc etc?
Don't be silly. Just because some idiots misuse it, doesn't mean we should lose all faith in humanity. These drones do just as much good as they do harm. They are bloody awesome in search and rescue for one.
Sadly the public use of drones is highly likely to cause a major accident in the future. The general public are getting access to some pretty high performance kit at rock bottom prices and are putting themselves and others into dangerous positions.
I don't really care for bomb scare mongering, people can just fill a car up with them and drive it where these things go anyway, but there is an increasing amount of reports of drones being flown towards commercial air traffic in the latter stages of flight.
From a pilots perspective these drones are actually becoming a real threat, with several near misses being reported, one off the top my head was a turboprop aircraft on final approach into Southend Airport 6 months+ ago. This part of the skies is incredibly busy with commercial and general aviation, and whilst the drones have a legal limiting altitude of 400ft, many are flying far higher.
The consequences of a drone hitting an aircraft could be catastrophic. If it gets sucked into an engine it's not likely to crash, but it's an unacceptable risk. Plus I'm sure the drone pilot wont like a $5-7 million bill through the post for a CFM56 jet engine!
I've been lucky enough not to come close to one in flight (I think, I'm not really concentrating on whats outside, plus they're not very big when doing 150kts...), but it is something which is an increasing concern within the industry.
I've got a good friend who flies drones for a living (did the latest series with David Attenborough and the Beeb docu on the houses of parliament) and the regulations he has to go through to commercially operate are very strict, rightfully so. But with that said, I could go get the same (or lesser) kit than him, fly 2000ft over the center of London to look at the planes from the sky and not realise the dangers of what I'd be doing.
I hope nothing major ever happens, but it's come too close too often already.
