Drone, plane near-misses on rise
A growing number of complaints about drones involve near misses with aircraft despite efforts to educate drone operators about risk.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) received 268 drone complaints in the seven months to the end of July.
Thirty-five of them were classed as ‘‘air proximity’’ or near misses with aircraft, compared with 38 such reports for all of last year.
CAA special flight operations and recreational aviation manager Clayton Hughes said it was hard to track down offending drone users, who at times got their machines worryingly close to aircraft.
‘‘We’ve had some reports that they have been as close as 5 metres … They’re all serious, they do pose a threat,’’ he said.
In the past 12 months the CAA has investigated eight incidents involving ‘‘unmanned’’ aircraft, resulting in seven infringement notices and a written warning. A further three investigations are ongoing.
Auckland Airport is a hot-spot for drone infringements, and there have also been problems with tourists using drones to capture footage of the dramatic landscapes at Queenstown and Kaiko¯ ura airports.
Drones are banned within 4 kilometres of an aerodrome or helipad and air traffic control clearance is needed to operate in controlled airspace, with 65 breaches of these rules reported so far this year.
Most of the 800 users who took part in a survey for a recent review of drone regulations were recreational operators, and there was widespread agreement about the need for more education on rules that were being broken because they were ‘‘unknown, ignored or unjustified’’.
Hughes said by far the majority of offenders were New Zealanders, and CAA had talked to tourism accommodation places close to airports to ensure their guests were aware they should not be flying drones in the area.
It was common for airports to clear the air for half an hour if a drone was spotted in the vicinity because that was about the life of a drone battery.
‘‘If they wait half an hour, that should clear it, but it’s up to them to determine if it’s clear to resume operations,’’ Hughes said.