Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
FAA study says drones pose threat to airplanes
Safety incidents up 50 percent from ’16 at 250 a month
The millions of small civilian drones plying the nation’s skies can cause significant damage to airplanes in a midair collision, new research commissioned by the Federal Aviation Administration concluded.
While most drones weigh only a few pounds, they include motors and other metal equipment that could cause significant damage to aircraft engines, windshields or wings upon impact, the study by an FAA research center found.
Even though airliners and other aircraft are designed to withstand impacts from birds, “it doesn’t mean they are going to be able to withstand a 4pound or an 8-pound UAS impact,” said Gerardo Olivares, a researcher at Wichita State University in Kansas who helped lead the study. He referred to drones as UAS, or unmanned aerial systems.
The results of the government-sanctioned study, the most comprehensive of its kind to date, add urgency to FAA’s efforts to improve safety as the industry pushes to expand drone operations in everything from delivering consumer goods to performing aerial inspections. It also comes on the heels of the first two midair collisions between small drones and traditional aircraft in North America.
In October, the FAA said reports of drone-safety incidents, including flying improperly or getting too close to other aircraft, now average about 250 a month, up more than 50 percent from a year earlier. The reports include near-collisions described by pilots on airliners, law-enforcement helicopters or aerial tankers fighting wildfires.
The agency estimates that 2.3 million of the devices will be sold for recreational use in the U.S. this year.
Separate from the FAAsponsored tests, accident investigators in the U.S. and Canada are looking at the damage caused by two actual collisions with aircraft.
An Army helicopter struck an SZ DJI Technology Co. Phantom 4 drone on Sept. 21 near Staten Island, N.Y. The device damaged the UH-60 Black Hawk chopper’s rotor blade, window frame and transmission deck, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board. The helicopter crew landed safely.
On Oct. 12, a chartered turboprop carrying six passengers and two crew members struck a drone at about 1,500 feet as it prepared to land in Quebec, according to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. The Beechcraft King Air A100, which sustained minor damage to the left wing, landed a short time later and there were no injuries.
Determining the risks of a midair collision between drones and traditional planes and helicopters is critical to opening the skies to greater uses of drones.