USAA Petitions FAA for UAS Commercial Exemption



by Scott Kesselman



At 2 p.m. today, the USAA filed for an exemption to use unmanned aircraft systems for commercial purposes in national airspace to help improve insurance claim response time for members during natural disasters.



“We are constantly seeking ways to better serve our members, especially during catastrophes when getting into neighborhoods immediately after can be dangerous to human life,” says Alan Krapf, president of USAA Property and Casualty Insurance Group, “and applying new technologies is one way we can do that.”



The company is seeking exemption under Section 333 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, a week after the administration approved similar applications for six companies in the aerial video and photography industry.



USAA will use a small, five-pound UAS made by Precision Hawk for line of sight testing on its rural campus near San Antonio.