RPAS – risks, regulations and rewards
Subash Devkaran
We live in an era characterised by unprecedented change in the way we go about our daily activities. Cellphone technology in conjunction with the internet has made global information and connectivity available to any person, anywhere, at any time, even in an aircraft. Today, borders only exist in a physical sense, for tangible commodities, as information is able to flow freely across continents at the speed of light.
Air Transportation has long been a catalyst for national and global economic growth, through rapid and safe transfer of goods and persons across continents. Given the nature of air travel, this being speed, comfort and safety, we hypothesise that all industries have now become dependent, in one way or another on air travel, even with internet technology being available at our fingertips. The key pillar which supports this growing aviation industry is its level of safety, or said differently, the absence of frequent accidents. Nobody would choose to fly, either themselves or their goods, if the safety of aviation was not to a generally acceptable public standard. An unacceptable safety record would in fact, be the biggest threat to the sustainability of aviation as an industry. Therefore, national aviation regulators have an important role to play in ensuring the highest levels of safety in aviation for the sustainability of the aviation sector. It is primarily high levels of safety, which ensures the sustainability of the aviation sector, a key sector which immeasurably supports global economies, and ultimately your business, whatever it may be.
A relatively new entrant to this civil aviation sector is remotely piloted aircraft systems, in short RPAS. This civil aviation technology has seemingly endless benefits, with new benefits and applications being discovered almost daily. Farmers are currently able to use this technology, to increase the quality of their crops, through determining moisture content of the soil. Scientists and researchers can fly into areas, spaces and situations that were impossible before in order to further understand our planet. Aerial surveying can be performed faster, more accurately and at a reduced cost, the same with industrial inspections and every other aerial based need. RPAS could further be used to transport goods such as medicines quickly into areas without road infrastructure. RPAS could be used to rapidly drop flotation devices to swimmers on a beach resulting in improved survival chances for citizens. These beneficial applications are never ending. We believe this technology and its applications are on a steep exponential growth path, NASA as an example is currently developing an RPAS which will be used in space, on the moon and mars. We envision that the introduction of RPAS technology into the mainstream South African economy will dramatically change the lives of all South Africans, to a similar degree as air travel, cell phones and internet technology did.
This all seems to be astonishing and one would think that RPAS only brings about new positive benefits to society. This unfortunately is not so. As a regulator, we have identified that this technology brings with it significant, new safety and security risks for South Africans. Most of these aircraft are made from consumer-grade electronics and uncertified software. Compared to certified manned aircraft, this makes RPAS prone to failure, at a rate which is currently indeterminable, due to a lack of scientific and engineering data. Further, with ever increasing technological advances, these aircraft have the potential to fly thousands of feet above the surface of the earth, well into manned aviation airspace. RPAS are generally invisible to Air Traffic Control and to pilots in a manned aircraft.
Our prime mandate at the South African Civil Aviation Authority is ensuring a safe and secure aviation sector in South Africa. About six weeks ago, a commercial airliner coming in for landing at Warsaw’s international airport almost had a mid-air collision with an RPAS. The airliner was at 2500 feet altitude at the time, and the RPAS was closer than 100 m from the airliner. Most would think that RPAS would only intentionally be operated up to 400 feet. This is not true. In March, as an Airbus A320 was on approach for landing, it narrowly avoided hitting an RPAS, at 1700 feet. The RPA was less than 15 m away from the airliner and passed overhead the airliner, not below as one would generally expect. The ingestion of a remotely piloted aircraft into an engine of an airliner on landing, could result in an In-Flight Shut Down of the engine, and could result in a loss of the airliner, its passengers, and citizens on the ground. At the Seattle Pride Parade in June, an RPAS weighing less than a kilogram crashed into a building and fell onto a woman’s head, knocking her unconscious.
Internationally, we have seen that RPAS are being used by malicious individuals to transport guns, drugs and contraband into prisons and over borders. In Ohio recently an RPAS was used to drop a cocktail of contraband into a prison yard. This resulted in a prison fight where prison officials were forced to use pepper spray to diffuse the situation. This is an example of a type of occurrence that was unheard of a year ago. A malicious individual could attach a bomb onto an RPAS and fly it into an aircraft, a building or group of persons. A malicious individual could attach a gun, a chemical, biological or radioactive weapon to an RPAS, and use this technology to commit an act of terrorism or extreme violence against members of the public. Walls over properties also no longer fully protect the privacy of individuals, as an RPAS could easily fly over a wall and feed live video to an individual with malicious intent, anonymously, since in most cases the RPAS operator will never be seen or known.
It follows that there are significant new safety, security and privacy risks which this technology brings to our country, which then necessitates matching levels of regulation to protect our citizens, and the sustainable growth of this new sector of aviation. There should be effective safety regulation whilst still allowing high levels of innovation and development within this new civil aviation sector. We envision our skies to eventually be saturated with this new type of aircraft within the next few years and we are preparing accordingly. We realise that as a regulator, we need to be agile and proactive in responding to any threats on the safety or security of the citizens of this country.
This is indeed a complex area of regulation, an area which the International Civil Aviation Organisation and aviation regulators are finding difficult to regulate.
South Africa is proudly one of the first countries internationally to develop comprehensive regulations governing the use of RPAS. These regulations took effect on 1 July 2015. Since then we have issued six Remote Pilot Licences and registered 73 RPAS. Without being overly confident, we are satisfied that these new regulations will ensure an acceptably safe and secure environment for national RPAS operations. Of course our work is not completed, and we are being put to the ultimate test as a regulator… and that test involves safely integrating this new aircraft type into our airspace.
Like all countries around the world, South Africa has its own share of economic challenges to resolve. In supporting South Africa’s NDP goal of eliminating poverty and reducing inequality by 2030, we appeal to all users of this new technology, that in using this technology we should not lose sight of this important goal. It is inevitable that in using this technology, some jobs will be lost at the lower end and new specialised jobs will be created. We expect that the introduction of this new sector of civil aviation will in the long term improve the South African economy, through increased efficiency of South African business. We live in global market place and South African business can only survive if we can compete at an international level. A flourishing employment market which equally supports good business development and economic growth for the next generation of youth will be attainable if we all use this technology responsibly in South Africa.
