Survey of sUAS Flight Termination as Depicted in Internet Video

Abstract

Studies of accidents involving large and military unmanned aerial vehicles have demonstrated that these are largely due to equipment failure. In many cases, accidents involving small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) do not reach damage or injury thresholds which require reporting. As a result, sUAS are not represented in existing accident analysis. This study systematically surveyed unintended flight terminations of sUAS (n = 292) depicted in internet video. Each flight termination was categorized into four categories. Controlled flight into an object and piloting errors were the most common reasons for flight termination (49.3% and 32.5%, respectively). Hardware malfunctions were the least common reason (2.1%). Training programs for natural resource remote pilots should emphasize flight proficiency and knowledge of the flight characteristics of systems being used.