Overcrowding in the skies
Increasing use of drones raises safety concerns
Once the domain of the military, unmanned aerial vehicles —or “drones” — have seemingly endless uses today. They’re being used by real estate agents to take aerial images of properties, farmers to fly over crops to help spot infestations, and police to help locate stranded or missing people.
But as commercial and recreational uses of these remotecontrolled “eyes in the sky” have grown, so too have reports of near-collisions with larger aircraft and other mishaps, raising questions about whether Canada is doing enough to regulate them.
The consequences could be “catastrophic” if a drone gets sucked into the engine of a commercial jet, said Joe Barnsley, an aviation lawyer in Winnipeg.
“The government needs to have this as a real priority,” he said. “Hopefully there won’t be a tragic incident that will move it up on the radar.”
Drones come in different forms. Some are small fixedwing aircraft, while others are rotor-based. They can cost a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars or more.
Transport Canada regulations require that drone operators whose aircraft weigh more than 35 kilograms or whose aircraft are being used for commercial purposes apply for a special flight operations certificate. They must provide details of the purpose of the operation, the altitudes and routes they plan to use, and show there are no hazards to people or property.
In 2011, Transport Canada issued 155 such certificates. In 2013, they handed out 945.
Drone operators who fly aircraft less than 35 kilograms and for recreational purposes are exempt from these rules. The only rule that applies to them is one that says not to fly into clouds or “in a manner that is or is likely to be hazardous to aviation safety.”
Barnsley said there ought to be more explicit rules that limit how high drones can fly and that require aircraft to remain in the line of sight at all times. Otherwise, he said, you end up with a “Wild West scenario where things are falling out of the sky and bashing into each other and into people and property.”
On June 30, a pilot for B.C.- based KD Air Corp. flew out of the Vancouver International Airport when he reported a “near miss” with an unmanned aerial vehicle at about 579 metres in the air. The pilot was forced to climb up to avoid the drone, and estimated the vertical distance between him and the drone was less than 30 metres.
A video shot from a drone and posted on YouTube last November showing a commercial airliner coming in for a landing at the Vancouver airport sparked similar complaints that the drone was too close to the airport.
The person who shot the video, identified online as “Quadrotor Dragonfly,” wrote a column on his YouTube site saying that his aircraft was flying more than a kilometre away from the edge of the airport and could not have been in anyone’s flight path.
The RCMP and Transport Canada opened investigations into both incidents but have so far been unable to locate the operators.
Transport Canada “will not hesitate” to go after drone operators who violate regulations or the terms of their operating certificates, said spokeswoman Roxane Marchand. The maximum penalty is a $5,000 fine for an individual or $25,000 for a corporation.