The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) information on the extent of unsafe use of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the national airspace system is limited. Although FAA collects data on several types of safety events involving small UAS, the accuracy and completeness of the data are questionable.
For example, since 2014, pilots and others have reported to FAA over 6,000 sightings of UAS, often flying near manned aircraft or airports, but FAA officials told GAO that FAA cannot verify that small UAS were involved in most of the sightings. Officials explained that small UAS are often difficult for pilots to identify definitively and typically are not picked up by radar. Such data limitations impede the agency’s ability to effectively assess the safety of small UAS operations.
FAA is taking steps to improve its data. For example, it is developing a web-based system for the public to report any sightings of UAS that are perceived to be a safety concern and a survey of UAS users on their UAS operational activity. FAA did not have time frames for completing these efforts, but according to FAA, each of the efforts is underway and at varying stages of development. FAA is also evaluating technologies for detecting and remotely identifying UAS, and that could improve data on unsafe use.
Of the five key principles of safety risk management in its policies, FAA—in its regulatory efforts related to small UAS—followed two and partially followed three. FAA followed the principles of (1) defining appropriate roles and responsibilities for safety risk management and (2) describing the aviation system under consideration. FAA partially followed the other three principles: (1) analyzing and assessing safety risks; (2) implementing controls to mitigate the risks; and (3) monitoring the effectiveness of the controls and adjusting them as needed.
For example, FAA did not consistently analyze and assess safety risks in terms of their severity and likelihood; FAA officials told GAO that for some efforts, the agency did not have sufficient data to do so. However, for other efforts for which FAA did not have sufficient data, the agency made estimates based on expert judgment, as allowed under the agency’s safety risk management policy. Improved risk management practices would help FAA determine whether additional actions are needed to ensure the safety of the national airspace and provide FAA and other decision-makers with confidence that FAA is focusing on the most critical safety risks posed by small UAS.
Why GAO Did This Study
Small UAS—unmanned aircraft weighing less than 55 pounds, typically flown by remote control within sight of a ground ”pilot”—are increasingly being used for commercial and recreational purposes. Congress and others have raised questions about the extent of unsafe small UAS use and FAA’s and other agencies’ efforts to address safety risks they pose.
This report examines (1) what information is available to FAA about the extent of unsafe small UAS use in the national airspace, and (2) the extent to which FAA’s management of safety risks posed by small UAS has followed key principles of risk management, among other objectives. GAO reviewed FAA and other federal data on small UAS use from 2014 to 2018, and FAA and industry documents. From FAA’s policies that apply to its safety oversight, including small UAS, GAO identified five key safety risk management principles and 15 supporting requirements, and compared them to FAA’s regulatory efforts related to small UAS. GAO also interviewed FAA officials, as well as 46 aviation stakeholders, including experts and industry groups, selected based on their knowledge of small UAS safety issues.
What GAO Recommends
GAO recommends that FAA establish a mechanism to ensure that FAA’s management of small UAS safety risks follows all applicable principles and requirements in the agency’s policies. FAA agreed with GAO’s recommendation.
Full report is available here.
Source: Press Release
Why did the GAO refer UAS pilots as ”pilot”, as if they are not legitimately manipulating the controls of a real aircraft? The GAO made some valid points, but their thinking needs to be updated to see commercial UAS pilots as the professionals that they are. On the other hand, undisciplined hobby flyers are a different matter.
As I have often said, Pilots see things all the time, Birds, Mylar balloons, Plastic bags and other debris swept up by air currents and dust devils, these things are incredibly hard to see, and even harder to identify. Do the math, the cross section of a typical Phantom 4 is about the size of a good hoagie sandwich. How far away can you see that sandwich? I would estimate 200 yards or 600 feet is probably the max detection range without strobes or other visibility enhancing devices.
At 500 statute mph unless my math is wrong your moving at 2,640,000 feet an hour, divided by 60 (minutes) and 60 again (seconds) gives you 733 feet per second.
A bullet out of a .45 acp moves at a nominal 930fps so your flying at roughly more than two thirds the speed of a bullet. at 733fps it will take just over 8/10ths of a second for your hoagie sized target to go from barely perceptible in the distance to off your wingtip.
If you blink, that takes between 3 and 4 tenths of a second, so in two eye blinks you have to see, focus, track and follow, identify an object. Fat Chance of this occurring with any accuracy whatsoever.
The AOPA, and The Airlines pushed for a new classification or sighting report, and suddenly everything that any pilot saw that was not easily identified suddenly became a drone. The report at Heathrow a year or so back is a classic example. Even the Government suggested it was most probably a plastic bag held aloft by hot air from jet blast at the airport. That pilot could not conclusively identify the object and he was at APPROACH speed!
I am not saying we don’t need to do everything we can to provide a safe environment for all who are in the sky and on the ground under them. But the fact that in the U.S. alone there are over 1,500 bird strikes that are REPORTED… I am not seeing anybody looking to outlaw birds. No fleets of shotgun equipped dudes driving the taxiways whacking birds with reckless abandon.
The boogieman is mostly in the mind of the media. Drone pilot education is working and technology is catching up. Look at AirMAP for Android and Mac. Excellent ability to request and get permission to fly even in controlled airspace, and updates to airspace conditions and restrictions are embedded right in the Drone Pilots app, so if the FAA shuts down an area to flying you get info to that effect immediately.
Out of all the thousands of reports in 2016 the FAA admitted they only had confidence in about two dozen and only two of them did the pilot feel the need to divert. If you see and have time to divert, it is not a hobby drone and the military needs to de-conflict better. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water here folks. Let the technology mature, reap the benefits of this platform, not for pizza, but to deliver to your back yard an AED that can save your loved ones life.