Australia:- Illegal unmanned aircraft operations pose significant safety challenge

The Australian Certified UAV Operators Association (ACUO) is calling for the current Federal Government Aviation Safety Regulation Review to back a harder line to combat the growing problem of illegal unmanned aircraft operations.

ACUO is today releasing its submission to the review in light of last weeks reported near-miss incident involving a Westpac rescue helicopter and an unknown unmanned aircraft operating at 1000ft.
The submission calls for new resourcing to be provided to CASA to deal specifically with illegal UAS operations. It warns that the outlook facing the Australian unmanned aircraft industry has strong parallels with the rise of commercial aviation in Australia during the 1920s and 1930s, where a high rate of incidents included loss of human life.

“Under resourcing of the regulatory and compliance management capacities of CASA is not an option as the unmanned aircraft industry continues its rapid growth in not just Australia, but internationally” says Joe Urli, ACUO President, who has worked as an air safety inspector for national aviation authorities in two different countries.

“Illegal unmanned aircraft operations are on the rise in Australia and the question of whether they will be a serious safety incident is no longer theoretical given last weeks reported near-miss incident involving a Westpac rescue helicopter flying back to its Newcastle base”.

“ACUO calls on the Aviation Safety Regulation Review to give detailed attention to the challenge posed by illegal UAS operations lest the future contain incidents of untold tragedy which can be avoided by action today. There has been a significant rise of CASA certified UAV operators in Australia over the past two years, however, the rate of illegal operations by uncertified operators is now skyrocketing. CASA itself accepts the reality of this challenge”. (See note 1).

“A brief review of You Tube will swiftly reveal evidence of illegal operations by uncertified operators in Australia. There are videos from camera equipped unmanned aircraft flying above cloud height as well as at low altitudes over people on major city beaches such as Cottesloe in Perth. CASA Part 101 clearly states that operations can only be conducted over non-populous areas.

“Likewise YouTube videos can be readily found where the unmanned aircraft is flying at low altitude over busy city motorways in peak hour, with Perth again providing examples. This type of illegal operation mirrors the Sydney Harbour bridge incident (2nd October 2013) which caused a response by counter terrorism units.”

“CASA is internationally respected for its pioneering work in facilitating the legal operation of commercial unmanned aircraft”, said Mr Urli. “However that effort is now at direct risk of being undermined if more resources are not made available to the regulator to allow for not only the continued development of a well-structured regulatory regime, but also its enforcement”.

“At present there is little consequence in Australia for flying illegally, other than basic fines if the individual is caught. We place direct obstacles before those who seek to obtain motor vehicle licences if they have a past record of illegal driving and we need to look at similar measures for UAV certification. It is not unreasonable to propose that if found guilty of flying illegally, the individual concerned be barred from obtaining a CASA UAV operators certificate for a period of time from the date of the demonstrated offence.”

ACUO’s specific recommendations to the Aviation Safety Regulation Review comprise:

1. CASA needs to rethink and rework its current enforcement procedures applying to the‘unmanned’ sector of aviation, so that; acuo-pr-04-2014 Page 2 of 2

· They are entirely workable and cost-effective to administer and deliver across th ‘unmanned’ sector of aviation, as well as the rest of the aviation industry.

· They provide an immediate, positive and strong deterrent value to illegal UAV operations.

2. CASA Enforcement procedures for the ‘unmanned’ sector of aviation should be considered in conjunction with a nation-wide awareness campaign to inform and educate the public and industry about the do’s and don’ts of RPAS operations in Australia, and the safety/regulatory/legal basis for having regulations.

· There needs to be a re-focus of attention by CASA on the illegal UAV operators, not the certified UAV operators as is currently the case.

· There needs to be a strong focus on ‘DETERRENCE’ and getting the message across: “If you breach the aviation regulations, you will pay the penalties”.

· There also needs to be a clear distinction between military and civil RPAS experience when qualifying and operating RPAS. Military experience needs to be assessed for; Category, Technical and Operational competence and relevance. Military RPAS operations do not directly correlate with commercial RPAS operations.

3. That the penalties for illegal UAV operations should include:

· Increased fines representative of the sort of money they are earning from their illegal activities [ie thousands of dollars, not hundreds] and this should increase exponentially with subsequent prosecutions.

· Automatic confiscation of UAV equipment and if necessary, CASA sell or auction the confiscated equipment to offset the costs of enforcement.

· An automatic 12 month ban on applying for a UAV certificate or licence after a successful prosecution for illegal UAV operations.

4. That the revised UAV regulations include a provision that makes it illegal for an uncertified UAV operator to publicly advertise their services

· A similar provision is written into CAR88 regulations [CAR210] making it illegal for anyone to advertise for [conventional] Aerial Work Operations without an AOC

· The same should be true for commercial UAV Operators also.

The full ACUO submission to the review can be downloaded here: http://www.acuo.org.au/

The review is due to report to the Federal Government in May this year.

For further information, please contact:
Joe Urli
President
ACUO
Email: president@acuo.org.u

Brad Mason
Secretary
ACUO
Email: secretary@acuo.org.au

About ACUO:

ACUO was established as a legal entity in March 2010 and currently represents about a third of all entities holding Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority unmanned aircraft operator certificates. It is chartered to promote the growth and the expansion of the commercial unmanned aircraft industry in Australia and to ensure the safe and orderly growth of the sector. ACUO represents Australia globally as part of the International Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems Coordination Council, the pre-eminent global policy coordination body for this important sunrise industry.

Note 1:
CASA advised a House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs hearing in Canberra, 28 February 2014, that it estimated there were more than six illegal operators for every certified operator now active in Australia. See page ten of the Hansard transcript at the following link:
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22committees/commrep/e08acf66-0f19-