Pressure grows for change in Drone Law - now!

Following my story yesterday over concerns from the RAF over conflict between low flying flights and drones British Airline pilots have added their voice over concerns relating to potential risks from over populated drone filled skies and poorly trained or illegal operators.

BALPA, (British Airline Pilots Association is calling for clearly defined safe zones over and above those which exist for aircraft during take off and landing.

BALPA, the pilot's association, has told the House of Lords that tighter rules are needed to govern larger drones in particular such as those being used for commercial or military use.

There concern is that despite the size and weight of some unmanned aircraft they are not subject to the same safety or security and could be "hijacked" by criminal hackers to bring down an aircraft.

Drones - officially referred to as Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) in the UK- are becoming more popular for both hobby and commercial use and we quoted a source recently that suggested there may now be over half a million drones in the UK.

Increasingly drones are used for everything from TV and News coverage to crop spraying. Across the World new uses are announced almost daily with advanced tests now in place for home deliveries and news last month that teh UK's first Drone Motorway will open in late Summer.

Sources suggest the commercial market is estimated to be worth ￡7.5bn globally over the next decade but depending on how you calculate commercial use I have seen figures of around double that being quoted..

THE CAA and everyone in the industry is aware of a need to change the current law and further legislation and amendments are needed to keep track on technology that is developing daily. The House of Lords Committee is studying the impact of the technology so we can expect changes soon and hopefully not too late .

In the USA security concerns exist over Chinese drones largely based on suspicion about spy systems while in the UK GCHQ has also voiced security concerns though these may be more to do with the physical threat such as being used to breach security areas. It warned they could be exploited by burglars, train robbers, poachers and the paparazzi! Increasingly the CAA has created "temporary no fly zones" to manage security events like last year's Eurovision in respect of threats both local and international. These zones, however, do not protect remote farms from thefts which is one example of peoples concern despite you only being allowed to fly drones over private land with consent. Equally local authorities have assumed the power to make orders restricting flying drones local. Much of these new rules may be questionable and potentially open to challenge as to the legal basis.

Then there is the issue of anti drone controls which will introduce inevitable conflict as to individual freedoms and possible issues interfering with legitimate commercial use. inevitably I see an time when the imposition of restrictions will be legally challenged due to commercial interests.

As an industry we need to be responsible and accept the concerns (some of which may be spurious). There is no place for irresponsible flying and as with motor cars stricter licencing and punishments and personal flying bans may be what the industry needs to accept. We need to be able to fly beyond site and have systems that manage this to unlock commercial potential and we need to balance that against safety.

Once the rules are in place the whole issue or consistent enforcement will need to be considered too. The Police currently have the role and our experience suggests confusion on teh ground (no pun intended) as to what the law actually says. The Police will also need resourcing if they are to add "sky patrols" to "highway patrols"!

The issue boils down to operators of drones using common sense but generally as humans we do not always use that sense and then the law will step in. The problem for me as a former lawyer is that can often be just as problematic since teh law and common sense are not always good bedfellows!

The situation is similar to that of the Motor Car when it became popular in the 1930's. The problems then led to the Highway code. What we need now is a Skyway code!

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