Drone ban must be considered after rail survey aircraft falls in garden – report

The unmanned DJI Phantom 4 RTK was being operated in automated flight mode to survey rail track in Newtongrange last December.
DJI Phantom 4 RTK
Douglas Barrie20 May 2021

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) “should consider prohibiting” drones which could injure people below after an aircraft carrying out a railway survey crashed into a garden, a report has said.

On the afternoon of December 2 last year the unmanned DJI Phantom 4 RTK was being operated in automated flight mode by Network Rail to survey track at Newtongrange in Dalkeith, Midlothian.

However one of the four propellers detached mid-flight and the drone rapidly descended from a height of 70 metres (230ft) where it fell into the back garden of a house nearby.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has investigated the incident and found a member of the public was 10 metres from where the aircraft landed.

Now the organisation is calling on the CAA to consider the use of the unmanned aircraft “to reduce the risk of colliding with people and causing injuries that could be fatal”.

Analysis indicated a blunt object with the same mass as the DJI Phantom 4 RTK (1.391kg) and falling from a height of only eight metres (25ft) could result in fatal injury to someone even wearing a hard hat.

The AAIB previously made a safety recommentdation to the AAIB after an incident in Leeds in January 2020 saying: “It is recommended that the Civil Aviation Authority specify the conditions that must be met for an unmanned aircraft to be flown safely over people.”

It also noted that while there has been a change in unmanned aircraft system (UAS) regulations, those holding permission for commercial operation (PfCO) or operational authorisation issued by the CAA “may overfly uninvolved people with a UAS of more than 250 grams and that is able to impart more than 80 Joules of kinetic energy”.

In January 2021, Network Rail precluded the use of DJI Phantom 4s in support of its survey activities

AAIB

The report said: “It is recommended that, until an analysis of failure rates per flying hour has demonstrated an acceptable level of safety, the Civil Aviation Authority should consider prohibiting the overflight of uninvolved persons for those unmanned aircraft operating in the specific category which rely solely upon their propulsion system for lift that would, following a failure of the propulsion system, impact the ground with a kinetic energy exceeding 80 Joules.”

As part of the safety action, the report adds: “In January 2021, Network Rail precluded the use of DJI Phantom 4s in support of its survey activities.

“Furthermore, they advised that they intend to carry out trials using a UAS with a maximum take off mass (MTOM) of less than 250 grams for when there is a need for UAS operations over uninvolved persons.

“The flight management system (FMS) is also being updated to provide a ‘risk map’ to include information on areas having known hazards, such as transmission masts that could affect UAS communications.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in