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Drones are posing increasing risks to the aviation industry, including airlines, their passengers and airports.
This was highlighted in December by two events.
First, London’s Gatwick Airport, the UK’s busiest airport, was shut down for two days while authorities dealt with reports of drones flying near one of its runways.
CNN said that shutdown affected more than 110 000 passengers.
Second, in South Africa, drone sightings near the borders of the King Shaka International Airport in Durban have caused alarm.
The airport said that drones or remotely piloted aircraft systems could lead to a “serious incident”.
SA Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) spokesperson Papi Maja said there had not been any accidents caused by drones and no other sightings except for one near King Shaka airport last month.
Drones are not allowed to be operated near airports.
“There has not yet been any aviation accident caused by a remotely piloted aircraft system. However, the most popular example of the inappropriate use of remotely piloted aircraft systems relates to a drone crash in premises of the Koeberg nuclear power facility [in August 2016] just outside Cape Town,” Maja said.
“Regulations prohibit flying remotely piloted aircraft systems adjacent to or above a nuclear power plant, prison, police station, crime scene, court of law, national key point or strategic installation.”
Maja said that drones posed “significant risks” when not operated within the applicable law.
“Drones can cause damage to property or injure members of the public from collision hazards, including possible ingestion into aircraft engines, which could have catastrophic effects on the flight and consequently endanger the lives of the passengers. The remotely piloted aircraft systems should integrate with the existing and highly organised manned aviation sector in a manner that does not pose a risk to existing airspace users, citizens or property,” he said.
In addition to the regulations by the Sacaa, the Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS), which is the state-owned air traffic control authority, has stringent rules.
“The airspace is controlled and monitored by ATNS – hence a full record of the relevant stats may be obtained from them. Our legal enforcement may be contacted for any details of enforcement actions taken with regards to violations.”
Maja pointed out that registering all remotely piloted aircraft systems is also a precautionary measure to avoid any incidents and accidents.
Airports Company SA said that other than the sighting of a drone near to Durban’s King Shaka Airport, there had not been any reported incidents relating to drones.
According to Sacaa regulations, non-private use, drones must be registered and operated within set regulations.
For private use, drones have much less regulations but are still regulated, none the less, including that they can only be flown during daylight and in clear weather.
The organisation also said all accidents and incidents involving an RPAS must be reported to it where there is any injury or death to a person, damage to property or destruction of the RPAS beyond economical repair where loss of control has occurred must also be reported to the holder of the RPAS operators certificate.
It said the purpose of investigation of an accident or incident when such is reported is to determine in the interest of the promotion of aviation safety and the reduction of the risk of aviation accidents or incidents, and not to establish legal liability.
Once accident investigations are concluded a report is compiled in the interest of promoting aviation safety.
According to the SACAA, there is a difference between RPAS, which are defined as an unmanned aircraft piloted from a remote pilot station, toy aircraft, which is a product falling under the definition of aircraft designed or intended for use in play by children and model aircraft, which is a non-human-carrying aircraft capable of sustained flight in the atmosphere and used exclusively for air display, recreational use, sport or competitions.
The drones are also classified through four parameters which are the mass, the impact velocity, the height above ground level and the flight rules.
