Federal Government Aviation Safety Regulation Review Report Fails to Address Unmanned Aircraft Safety Matters

The Australian Certified UAV Operators Association (ACUO) provisionally welcomes yesterday’s release of the report of  the Aviation Safety Regulation Review, but expresses concern that a major opportunity to examine the broad range of challenges posed by the increasing numbers of commercial unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) has been missed.

ACUO is of the view that CASA’s structures for developing UAS regulations and providing effective oversight of this emerging sector remain under-resourced and unresponsive to real world commercial conditions, with the safety review report completely silent on UAS matters as a whole.

ACUO President, Joe Urli, says “we will be taking up the Government’s invitation for responses to the Aviation Safety Regulation Review as we believe there is still much work needed to ensure the safe integration of UAS into Australian airspace.

“We note that the review felt it appropriate to address specific matters such as gliding, ultralights, parachuting, hang gliding and ballooning, but not one of the highest growth sectors of aviation in unmanned aircraft. That these sectors should be examined whereas UAS were ignored raises questions of comprehensiveness and lack of attention to the evidence provided.”

“ACUO is deeply concerned at the safety implications of CASA’s recently proposed deregulation of UAS under 2kg in weight with that specific type of system increasingly appearing to be the primary type of threat being encountered by manned aviation. CASA’s proposed approach has significant safety implications but clearly this did not become apparent to the Aviation Safety Regulation Review panel.

“ACUO believes the overarching reforms put forward by the Aviation Safety Regulation Review do have some potential to aid in addressing these issues but there remains a need for specific focus on UAS issues, as opposed to generic reforms.

“ACUO looks forward to continued constructive engagement with the Federal Government as it considers the most appropriate way forward for aviation safety in Australia as a whole. We strongly urge the Federal Government to act to ensure UAS are not neglected in this evaluation, lest the near miss incidents of recent months come to result in a significant aviation accident and serious injuries or the loss of lives.”

Read more

ACUO submission to the ASRR – Final

For further information please contact:

Joe Urli
President
ACUO
Email: president@acuo.org.au

Brad Mason
Secretary
ACUO
PH: 0408 772 571
Email: secretary@acuo.org.au