The default rule on flying a drone over people is a prohibition, and it is stated plainly. 14 CFR 107.39, "Operation over human beings," begins: "No person may operate a small unmanned aircraft over a human being unless" one of three conditions holds. The first is that the person is directly participating in the operation of the drone. The second is that the person is located under a covered structure or inside a stationary vehicle that can provide reasonable protection from a falling drone. The third — the one that opens routine flight over uninvolved people — is that the operation meets the requirements of at least one of the operational categories specified in Subpart D of Part 107.

Subpart D, added by the 2021 "Operations Over People" amendment (86 FR 4382), defines four categories scaled to how much harm a given drone could do. The entry point is Category 1, set in 14 CFR 107.110. To conduct Category 1 operations, the remote pilot must use a drone that "weighs 0.55 pounds or less on takeoff and throughout the duration of each operation," including everything on board or attached, and that "does not contain any exposed rotating parts that would lacerate human skin upon impact with a human being." The category turns on two physical facts about the aircraft — mass and the absence of skin-lacerating exposed rotors — rather than on operator paperwork.

To conduct Category 1 operations— (a) A remote pilot in command must use a small unmanned aircraft that— (1) Weighs 0.55 pounds or less on takeoff and throughout the duration of each operation under Category 1, including everything that is on board or otherwise attached to the aircraft; and (2) Does not contain any exposed rotating parts that would lacerate human skin upon impact with a human being.— 14 CFR 107.110, source

Why the rule is built around impact energy

The architecture of 107.39 plus Subpart D reflects a single governing idea: the risk that justifies the rule is a drone falling on a person. That is why the second exception in 107.39 — being under a covered structure or in a stationary vehicle — is framed as protection "from a falling small unmanned aircraft," and why Category 1's threshold is a weight limit paired with a no-laceration condition. A drone at or below 0.55 pounds is the same mass threshold that, elsewhere in the rules, separates the lightest aircraft from those requiring registration, and the FAA treats that mass as low enough that, absent exposed cutting rotors, sustained flight over people can be permitted without further injury-testing.

The heavier categories tighten the trade. Categories 2 and 3 allow flight over people for drones above the Category 1 weight only if the manufacturer demonstrates the aircraft meets an injury-severity limit and the drone carries no exposed rotating parts that would lacerate skin, with Category 3 adding restrictions on operating over open-air assemblies. Category 4 ties eligibility to an airworthiness certificate. The point of the gradation is that the more kinetic energy a drone could deliver in a fall, the more the operator must prove before flying it over an uninvolved person.

The crowd carve-out

Even Category 1 does not give unlimited access to crowds. Section 107.110(b) states that no remote pilot may operate a Category 1 drone "in sustained flight over open-air assemblies of human beings" unless the operation also meets the requirements of section 89.110 or 89.115(a) — the Remote ID provisions. In other words, sustained flight over an assembly is gated on the drone broadcasting Remote ID, layering the identification rule on top of the over-people rule. That cross-reference is a reminder that Part 107's categories and Part 89's Remote ID requirement operate together, not in isolation.

The exceptions in 107.39 are worth reading as written, because each is narrow. The rule permits flight over a human being only where "that human being is directly participating in the operation of the small unmanned aircraft"; or where the person "is located under a covered structure or inside a stationary vehicle that can provide reasonable protection from a falling small unmanned aircraft"; or where "the operation meets the requirements of at least one of the operational categories specified in subpart D of this part." The vehicle exception is conditioned on the vehicle being stationary and the structure exception on its being covered — both framed explicitly around protection "from a falling" aircraft.

What Category 1 demands of the aircraft

Section 107.110 makes the Category 1 threshold a property of the hardware, measured continuously rather than once. The aircraft must weigh "0.55 pounds or less on takeoff and throughout the duration of each operation under Category 1, including everything that is on board or otherwise attached to the aircraft." The phrase "throughout the duration" closes the obvious workaround of taking off light and adding a payload aloft, and "including everything that is on board or otherwise attached" folds cameras, mounts, and cargo into the weight that has to stay under the limit. The second condition — no "exposed rotating parts that would lacerate human skin upon impact" — is likewise a design fact about the airframe, not a flight procedure.

The crowd condition in 107.110(b) is a cross-reference, and it is precise about what it gates. No remote pilot may operate a Category 1 aircraft "in sustained flight over open-air assemblies of human beings" unless the operation also meets the requirements of "either § 89.110 or § 89.115(a) of this chapter" — the standard Remote ID aircraft path or the broadcast-module path. The limiting word is "sustained": a transient pass is treated differently from loitering over a crowd, and only the latter pulls in the Remote ID requirement on top of the weight-and-rotor test that Category 1 already imposes.

For an operator deciding whether a planned flight over people is lawful, the regulation provides a clean decision tree. Start at 107.39: is everyone below the drone either participating, sheltered, or covered by a Subpart D category? If you are relying on a category, identify which one your aircraft qualifies for by its weight, its exposed-rotor design, and any injury-test or airworthiness showing the heavier categories demand. And if the flight is sustained flight over an open-air assembly, confirm the Remote ID condition in 107.110(b) is satisfied. Each branch points to a specific section, which is why "can I fly over people?" has a definite, document-grounded answer rather than a judgment call.