The owners of private drones will have to register them with the government under a plan reportedly sparked by the rise in dangerously close encounters between the unmanned devices and both commercial jets and aerial firefighting planes.
NBC News reports the required registration with the Department of Transportation will be announced Monday, and could be in place by Christmas.
The close encounters have included one in July, when a drone was 100 feet away from a passenger jet setting up to land at New York's JFK International Airport, NBC News reports.
And in August,
four airliners reported spotting drones near Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J.
In June, a small drone also flew within a few hundred feet of a Southwest Airlines flight as the plane was about to land at Dallas' Love Field airport.
A drone also was blamed for
getting in the way of aerial firefighting over a California fire in July.
The Federal Aviation Administration last week
proposed a record $1.9 million fine against Chicago-based aerial photography company SkyPan for allegedly sending drones over Chicago and New York.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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