On the same day last month, airline pilots trying to land at two of the nation’s busiest airports got on their radios to report the unnerving sight of small rogue drones buzzing at high altitudes.
In the first May 29 incident, the pilot of a commercial airliner descending toward LaGuardia Airport saw what appeared to be a black drone with a 10- to 15-foot wingspan about 5,500 feet above Lower Manhattan, according to a previously undisclosed report filed with the Federal Aviation Administration.
In the second, two airliners separately approaching Los Angeles International Airport soared past what they described as a drone or remote-controlled aircraft the size of a trash can at an altitude of 6,500 feet, FAA records show.
The records do not name the airlines involved or say how close the aircraft came to the drones when they flew past. FAA officials said their inspectors could not track down the unregistered drones or determine who was flying them. “In many cases, radar data is not available and the operators cannot be identified,” the agency said.
The close calls were the latest in a rash of dangerous encounters between civilian airplanes and drones flown in contravention of FAA rules intended to safeguard U.S. airspace. Hazardous occurrences are becoming more frequent as more drones — legal and illegal — take to the skies, according to a yearlong investigation by The Washington Post:
• In 15 cases in the past two years, drones flew dangerously close to airports or passenger aircraft, including the incidents in New York and Los Angeles, according to reports submitted to the FAA. On May 3, the pilot of a commercial airliner preparing to land in Atlanta reported a small drone with four legs and bright lights “in close proximity” to his plane, according to the FAA records. The agency recently disclosed that the pilot of a US Airways plane reported a near-collision with a drone or remotely controlled model aircraft over Tallahassee Regional Airport on March 22 in Florida.
• A different set of records suggests that risky midair encounters are even more common. A NASA database of confidential complaints filed by pilots and air-traffic controllers has recorded 50 other reports of close calls or improper drone-flight operations in the past decade.
• Civilian drones flown with the FAA’s permission and under its scrutiny are also susceptible. Since November 2009, law enforcement agencies, universities and other registered users have reported 23 accidents and 236 unsafe incidents, according to FAA records.
The problem is worsening just as the federal government is preparing to lift barriers that could flood the country’s already-congested skies with thousands of remotely controlled aircraft. Under a law passed two years ago, Congress ordered the FAA to issue rules legalizing drones for commercial purposes by September 2015 — the first step in a new era of aviation that eventually will allow drones of all sizes to fly freely in the national airspace, sharing airports with regular planes.
The FAA also must ensure that safety standards are not compromised and passenger aircraft are not imperiled, according to the law.
The FAA is facing pressure to move faster. The drone industry says it is losing $27 million in economic benefits a day while the FAA prepares regulations for certifying drones and licensing pilots.
“I completely understand that there is significant potential, there’s significant benefit, there’s great things that unmanned aircraft can do. We need to be convinced that they can do so safely,” FAA administrator Michael Huerta said. “Every day in America people are getting on airplanes. …
It’s their expectation that these things, that unmanned aircraft flying around in our airspace, will meet that same level of safety. And we owe that to them.”
Flouting regulations
Thanks to rapid advances in technology, small satellite-guided drones with powerful miniature cameras can be bought online for less than $500. Flying drones as a hobby is permitted below 400 feet, away from populated areas and at least 3 miles from an airport, according to the FAA. But those restrictions are being flouted and ignored:
• On May 5, a quad-copter — a drone with four rotors — crashed into the 30th floor of St. Louis’ Metropolitan Square building.
• In March, the FAA fined a Brooklyn man $2,200 for striking two midtown Manhattan skyscrapers with his quad-copter before it nearly hit a pedestrian.
• In August, a small drone with multiple rotors crashed into the grandstand at Virginia Motorsports Park, injuring three spectators.
Even drone advocates worry that the skies are becoming a free-for-all.
“We have to understand that the industry is at risk because of illegal drone usage,” General Dynamics executive Krista Ochs said last month at a drone-industry conference in Orlando, Fla. “If we have a major catastrophe that involves some type of midair collision, it could set us back years.”
Six sites across the country are approved to test drones and produce data that will shape safety standards. Officials said they will first propose rules for drones weighing 55 pounds or less. Regulations for larger aircraft will take significantly longer.
The FAA is feeling the heat from other corners. Civil libertarians are predicting a surveillance state run amok if the FAA does not issue privacy guidelines for government drone operators — an issue that Congress did not address in the 2012 law.
Many small-aircraft pilots and air-traffic controllers argue that allowing drones to fly alongside regular planes makes no sense. Greg Cromer, a private pilot from Stephens City, Va., submitted a letter to the FAA opposing the idea.
“I can see no way to prevent a collision with something that could be as small as a bird or kitchen appliance,” he wrote.
Technology issues
The NASA database suggests that dangerous brushes between drones and passenger aircraft are more common than the FAA acknowledges.
Since 2005, the system has received 50 reports of unsafe incidents involving drones. Some were minor infractions or deviations from airspace regulations. Others were near-disasters.
Chris Stephenson, an operations coordinator with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, described the pending integration of drones into the national airspace as “a tsunami headed for the front porch.” He predicted that it would take several years to devise reliable technology that would allow large drones to take off and land from the same airports as passenger planes.
Civilian drones are vulnerable to another safety threat: hacking.
Drones rely on GPS signals to navigate and are controlled by pilots or operators on the ground via a two-way-radio transmission link.
The military protects the communications and navigation links it uses to control drones with highly advanced encryption technology. Civilian drones, however, generally rely on unencrypted satellite links and radio transmissions that can be hacked, jammed or spoofed.
The most pressing concern, he said, are the large Predator B drones that federal Border Patrol agents fly along the long borders with Canada and Mexico. University of Texas aerospace engineering professor Todd Humphreys said he is skeptical that Homeland Security officials have secured the navigation links well enough to thwart hackers.
“They’ve never offered any evidence of that, and I don’t know how that can be true,” he said. “It’s a huge vulnerability.”
