A new story at Mashable reports that researchers in Australia have found that most drone accidents were caused by technology issues, rather than human error.
Led by Graham Wild, a senior lecturer in aviation at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, the researchers reviewed a sample of 152 global drone event reports between 2006 and 2015. The most common cause of accidents was a loss of communication or radio signal between the drone and controls, Wild told Mashable Australia.
The researcher also told Mashable that far more drone accidents occur, but few are reported. And when they are the reports don’t have sufficient details.
“It’s not mandated that you report all these details as it would be if you were flying at a general aviation airport,” he told Mashable. “A lot of the stuff with drones is literally just voluntary and sometimes people put in the bare minimum.”
Read the full story here.
“The researcher also told Mashable that far more drone accidents occur, but few are reported.”
What is the definition of an accident??
There have been more than a million hours of flight of small drones, yet there is not one verifiable report of a drone crash in the US that resulted in a serious injury as defined by the NTSB* to someone not connected to the flight. Not one. It is a safety rate that all other segments of aviation would be jealous to have. There is also not one verifiable report of a collision between a small drone and a manned aircraft. Not one.
* A band-aid is not a serious injury. CFR 49 §830.2 contains the definition of “Serious Injury” that the FAA and NTSB use in their aircraft and vehicular accident statistics.
In the new Part 107 rules for UAS, the FAA is using serious injury or loss of consciousness or $500 in property damage as the reporting threshold.
§ 107.9 Accident reporting.
No later than 10 calendar days after an operation that meets the criteria of either paragraph (a) or (b) of this section, a remote pilot in command must report to the FAA, in a manner acceptable to the Administrator, any operation of the small unmanned aircraft involving at least:
(a) Serious injury to any person or any loss of consciousness; or
(b) Damage to any property, other than the small unmanned aircraft, unless one of the following conditions is satisfied:
(1) The cost of repair (including materials and labor) does not exceed $500; or
(2) The fair market value of the property does not exceed $500 in the event of total
loss.