The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) are the latest organizations taking aim at more rules to avoid collisions between drones and manned aircraft, as well as to prevent accidents in populated areas. In a letter to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), U.S-based FSF urged “world governments to step up their regulation and enforcement of recreational drones.”
Foundation president and CEO Jon Beatty wrote, “Based on a number of recent incidents, we are increasingly concerned that uncertificated, untrained recreational drone operators are flying small UAS near airports and manned aircraft.” Beatty pressed ICAO to “accelerate the promulgation of appropriate standards and recommended practices to regulate recreational drones and to encourage ICAO member states to adopt corresponding regulations.”
Meanwhile, EASA published its first formal opinion on safe operations for small drones (up to 55 pounds) in Europe. The agency maintained its opinion takes into account the thousands of comments received from private citizens, industry, operators, and national authorities during the four-month consultation period that followed an EASA notice of proposed amendment published in May 2017.
The proposed requirements do not focus on the drone itself, but consider a range of elements such as where the drone is flown, who is flying the drone, what drone is being used for what purpose, and what safety features it has. The agency said this opinion “will serve as a basis for the European Commission to adopt concrete regulatory proposals later in the year.”
Among recent drone incidents were the February 14 crash of a Robinson R22 in Charleston, South Carolina, while an instructor and student pilot reportedly were maneuvering to avoid a drone; the October 2017 flight of a drone within five feet of a commercial aircraft landing at London Heathrow Airport; the October 2017 collision between a drone and a Beechcraft King Air 100 during final descent to Jean Lesage International Airport in Quebec; and the September 2017 collision of a recreational drone and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Staten Island, New York.
