Abstract
A sample of 152 accidents and incidents involving Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, more commonly referred to as “drones”, have been analysed. The data was collected from a 10-year period, 2006 to 2015, conveniently sourced from a limited population owing to the scarcity of reports. Results indicate that safety occurrences involving Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) have a significantly different distribution of contributing factors when sorted into distinct categories. This provides a thorough and up-to-date characterization of the safety deficiencies specific to RPAS. In turn, this contributes to the development of adequate safety management systems applicable to the RPAS sector. The majority of RPAS occurrences involved system component failures which were the result of equipment problems. Therefore, airworthiness instead of pilot licensing needs to be considered first when regulating the Remotely Piloted Aircraft System industry. “Human factors” and “loss of control in-flight” were found to be the second most common “contributing factor” and “occurrence category”, respectively; Remotely Piloted Aircraft pilot licensing will help reduce the probability of these secondary occurrences. The most significant conclusion is that reporting systems must be implemented to address RPAS accidents and incidents specifically, such that more useful data is available, and further analysis is possible facilitating an improved understanding and greater awareness.
Highlights
There is a growing interest in aircraft that are controlled from a remote location without a pilot located in the aircraft itself
The data collected revealed that 61% of all occurrences were attributed to System Component Failure/ Malfunction (SCF), with a significant gap between the closest Occurrence Categories (OC) factor, Loss of Control – Inflight (LOC-I)
A report by the ATSB on the accidents and incidents in an Australian aviation context over the period 2003 to 2012 showed markedly different results than those found in the civil Remotely Piloted Aircraft System” (RPAS) sector
Summary
There is a growing interest in aircraft that are controlled from a remote location without a pilot located in the aircraft itself. Referred to by many terms (“drones”, UAV, UAS, etc.) the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO 2015) has recently adopted “Remotely Piloted Aircraft System” (RPAS) to identify these aircraft. The interrelationships between the elements constituting the framework of the SHELL model will be significantly different These unmanned aircraft, commonly referred to as “drones” in the defence sector, usually conjure up thoughts of Predator UCAVs firing Hellfire missiles in combat operations (Callam 2015). The ever-evolving nature of the aviation industry has supported a vast deviation of RPAS into civilian aviation. These areas include policing activities, wildlife and fisheries protection, environmental monitoring, surveillance, as well as search and rescue (Gupta et al 2013).
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