The International Civil Aviation Organisation general assembly has referred proposals for the modification of aircraft accident investigation requirements to include unmanned air vehicle-specific data to the Air Navigation Commission's accident investigation and prevention division for review during 2008.
The USA had proposed that September's ICAO general assembly in Montreal back the routine collection of UAV accident and incident data to support development of a global approach to airspace integration for unmanned systems.
The assembly agreed on 28 September to the referral, noting that the Air Navigation Commission has already committed itself to examining UAV safety issues.
A working paper prepared by the US delegation and issued ahead of the assembly called on ICAO to "take a leadership role in encouraging the use of safety data collection and processing systems to monitor unmanned aerial system operations and determine appropriate preventative actions to ensure an acceptable level of safety for the world aviation community".
The working paper warned that the current definition of an aircraft accident in the convention on international civil aviation was developed "before the advent of unmanned aircraft. Because this definition does not specifically address occurrences where persons are not present on board the aircraft, investigative authorities may be reluctant to or prevented from investigating unmanned air system accidents events or co-ordinating those investigations with other countries". The definition should be changed to specifically include UAVs, the paper argued.
It said that "given the infancy of unmanned aerial system operations in civil airspace, it is likely that, despite the proactive efforts of regulators, operators and manufacturers, accidents will happen. It is imperative that unmanned aerial system accidents and serious incidents be investigated to assure that deficiencies in planned safety controls are identified and analysed and that the resulting lessons learned are passed on to the international community to prevent future accidents."
It also argued that incidents that do not result in an accident, but "carry the potential, in combination with other circumstances, to impact the safety of other users of civil airspace and persons and property on the ground" should also be closely examined. These could become "another valuable source of data to evaluate deficiencies". Such examination could provide "another valuable source of data to evaluate the deficiencies in unmanned aerial system operations".
The paper said: "The unique attributes of unmanned vehicles will require re-examination of existing guidelines for aircraft incident reporting. ICAO member states should examine the factors involved with unmanned aerial system operations and determine appropriate categories of safety-related incidents that unmanned aerial systems operators must report."
The US proposal for a higher level ICAO approach was in part prompted by the National Transport Safety Boards's ongoing investigation of the crash of a General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Predator B aircraft in Arizona in April 2006.
The working paper said that investigation is revealing "specific areas of safety consequence that are relevant to unmanned aerial system operations. In particular, issues related to the functional and human-interface design of the unmanned aerial system and its support, ground-based systems are being investigated as well as maintenance programmes relating to the continuing airworthiness of the systems. Pilot qualification and emergency training as well as co-ordination procedures between unmanned aerial system operators and the respective air traffic management organisations are also being examined."
Source: FlightGlobal.com
