Drone Disruption
One of the newer threats to normal operations at airports is that of drone activity. As outlined in Kevan James' book Heathrow Airport 70 Years and Counting (available from November 1, 2019), there has already been severe disruption at airports caused by illegal drone use and the easy availability of them is creating greater concern.
Reported by AIN Online, UK airlines, airports, and air traffic management providers are planning for possible widespread disruption to flights caused by deliberate drone incursions conducted by political protest groups. The anticipated threats include the worldwide demonstrations by the Extinction Rebellion environmental action network, which this week included an activist gluing himself to an airliner parked at London City Airport.
Speaking at the Drone Disruption Summit on Tuesday, EasyJet operations manager Douglas Moule explained that the UK’s Industry Resilience Group is considering how to respond to a situation in which activists deliberately fly drones around multiple airports. “There are some clever people at Extinction Rebellion, and the worst-case scenario is that they put a drone up at [London] Gatwick for 30 minutes, causing flights to divert, and then follow up with drones to disrupt flights into the diversion airports,” the A320 captain said. “We’ll have carnage then and it could clear the skies as happened during [the] 9/11 [terrorist attacks]. In that situation, it may be safer to keep flying into known drone activity, but we’ve got to decide how we would communicate that to pilots.”
Moule said that in response to the Extinction Rebellion protests, airline pilots have begun carrying additional fuel for possible diversions. As he spoke, Extinction Rebellion protestors continued to defy a ban on all demonstrations within London issued by police on Monday evening. The group has previously threatened to use drones to disrupt flights at London Heathrow Airport. The Drone Disruption Summit hosted aviation leaders from around the world, including officials from Hong Kong, where long-running political protests have caused severe disruption at the main airport.
The UK Industry Resilience Group is working to standardise the responses to drone threats by pilots, air traffic controllers, and airport personnel. The group met with the UK Civil Aviation Authority on October 14 to develop plans for an airline risk-assessment model that would include color-coded “red-green-amber” alerts to give pilots a clearer indication of real-time threats and response methods.
EasyJet safety manager Brendan Booth told the Drone Disruption Summit that engine and airframe manufacturers must initiate more coordinated action in terms of understanding and protecting against the damage drones can do. Moule suggested that it might make sense to start “firing drones into aircraft engines” as part of the certification process, mirroring the risk-assessment work done for bird strikes.
Much of the agenda for Kisaco Research’s Drone Disruption Summit focused on lessons learned from the four-day closure of London Gatwick Airport from December 19 to 22, 2019, after repeated drone incursions. Officials from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reported that, under the 2018 Preventing Emerging Threats Act, it will lead an effort to develop protection against the so-called “Gatwick on the Potomac Scenario” in which major U.S. airports might face similar disruption.
In the U.S., legal structures continue to complicate the overall response to drone threats. For instance, only certain federal agencies legally may use radio frequency identification and jamming systems already under development by privately-owned major airports in Europe, such as Gatwick.
A concept for operations for dealing with drone threats has been in the works since last year’s Gatwick situation, with input from multiple federal agencies and industry bodies such as the Airport Council International. The U.S. Congress has been pressing for clarification and possible changes to laws governing the government’s apparently fragmented response process.
There is little doubt that, worldwide, drones are causing serious concern, and it is only a matter of time before an airliner accident is caused by one.
Not apparently discussed thus far - at least in public - is the prospect of a total ban on ownership and use of drones by the general public. Such a ban would undoubtedly be harsh on a large number of drone owners who operate them with complete responsibility, but how would these owners feel if several hundred people were to be killed as a result of a crash caused by an airliner colliding with a drone?
Drone activity around airports means that they are in the immediate air space of low-flying aircraft. The lack of height, either for aircraft taking off or landing, means pilots have little chance of taking action to avert crashing.
It would seem therefore, that the only real solution is a complete ban.
Image - AIN Online
Kevan James new book is available from November 1, 2019
Price (GBP) £19.99
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