Under 14 CFR § 107.140(c), who is responsible for ensuring maintenance on a Category 4-eligible small unmanned aircraft meets the manufacturer's Instructions for Continued Airworthiness?

Why: 14 CFR § 107.140(c) places the maintenance-requirement burden on the owner, unless the owner enters into an agreement with an operator to meet those requirements instead.

• The FAA does not perform maintenance itself; it sets the requirements and may inspect records, but the owner (or a contracting operator) bears the maintenance responsibility.
• Responsibility runs with ownership or an owner-operator agreement, not with whichever remote pilot most recently flew the aircraft — a transient pilot has no § 107.140(c) maintenance duty.