Rogue drones: A real menace to global civil aviation

In January 2019, the Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, United States, halted all landings and diverted planes for over an hour after a potential drone sighting nearby. A year earlier, in December 2018, more than 800 flights were cancelled from London’s Gatwick due to disruptions caused by the illegal and dangerous drone operations at one of the UK’s busiest airports.The flights disruption affected an estimated 100,000 passengers whose Christmas travel plans had obviously gone awry.An industry research earlier revealed that small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can actually be much more damaging to aircraft than birds at the same impact speed, even if they are of similar weight.The study, published by the Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence, a think-tank, used computer simulations to examine the impact of bird and UAV collisions in more than 180 scenarios. The researchers found that the drones’ rigid and dense materials — such as metal, plastic and lithium batteries — can put aeroplanes at much greater risk than a bird carcass.A researcher said that in every collision scenario (with a drone) there was at least minor damage to the plane and sometimes it was much more severe. In one case, the researchers discovered that if a drone were to hit an aircraft’s fan blades when it is operating at its highest speed, the blades could shatter and snap power to the engine.A few days ago, the Biden administration called on the US Congress to expand authority for federal and local governments to take action to counter the nefarious use in the US of drones, which are becoming a growing security concern and nuisance.Recently, the White House released an action plan that calls for expanding the number of agencies that can track and monitor drones flying in their airspace. It calls for establishing a list of US government-authorised detection equipment that federal and local authorities can purchase and creating a national training centre on countering the malicious use of drones.The federal-government-wide focus comes as the Federal Aviation Administration projects that more than 2mn drones will be in circulation in the US by 2024 and as availability of detection and mitigation technologies — including jamming systems — are limited under current law.In the US, smugglers have used drones to deliver illegal drugs into the country. And Major League Baseball has had several incidents since 2020 where games have been delayed after privately owned drones have been flown onto a playing field. In 2015, there were two separate incidents in which drones crashed on White House grounds.According to Gadgets 360, an NDTV venture, US federal and local authorities say that drones have also been used to smuggle contraband, including mobile phones and drugs, into prisons.A decade ago, drones were a virtually unknown phenomenon. Nowadays, thousands of these aerial vehicles are in use worldwide, and the use for civil applications is growing fast for both recreational and commercial markets.Drones come in all shapes and sizes. They can be used for air transport (cargo, baggage, passenger), firefighting, agriculture, humanitarian (search and rescue, disaster relief), for filming and multiple other applications that require cheap and extensive aerial surveillance (border patrol, weather monitoring, nuclear security, hurricane tracking, law enforcement). The global body of airlines – IATA says the pace of development of the drone markets, both recreational and commercial, is incredibly fast, with challenges to be addressed and opportunities to be captured as it develops. “Our industry needs to react quickly to integrate, facilitate and embrace the opportunities offered by this new branch of civil aviation. As the number of drones will continue to grow exponentially, a high priority must be placed on the development of standards and recommended practices that enable the operation of Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) into the established aviation infrastructure,” IATA noted. Industry analysts say the rogue drones menace can be curbed only by identifying the operators of such unmanned aerial vehicles and bringing them to justice.They suggest measures to accelerate co-operation among the industry, drone manufacturers and governments to reduce the risks of rogue drone operations.Such measures could include greater education and awareness for drone operators, a registry of drones above a certain level of capability, enhanced fines and prison sentences for offenders, and technological solutions to prevent drones entering restricted airspace. According to industry experts, the law that is generally accepted is that it is illegal to fly a drone within 1km of an airport or airfield boundary and flying above 400ft (120m), which increases the risk of a collision with a manned aircraft – is also banned.Endangering the safety of an aircraft is also a criminal offence, which can carry a prison sentence for a specific period.The vulnerability of most airports is all too apparent when it comes to rogue drones, and therefore only tougher laws can deter unprincipled operators of such unmanned aerial vehicles.Undoubtedly, drones flown by untrained, unlicensed personnel are a real and growing threat to civilian aircraft. Therefore, experts have called for drone regulations to be put in place before any serious accidents occur.Pratap John is Business Editor at Gulf Times. Twitter handle: @PratapJohn