“A broad misconception is that small drones are harmless ‘toys’ flying at low level. However, RPAS, even light ones below 3,000 can cause significant or even catastrophic damage to e.g. helicopters in case of a collision as helicopters have a number of vulnerable, critical components, such as the tail rotor or main rotor head,” says ECA President Dirk Polloczek.

“Even below 500 feet there is a lot of air traffic, such as air ambulances, police or fire fighting. The same applies to the airspace next to airports, with a frequent incoming and outgoing traffic. Contrary to scheduled airline flights, most of the low level air traffic (e.g. police or air ambulances) are not predictable in time and place, but all are subjected to strict air operations rules. So should RPAS be.”

At this moment recommendations for worldwide requirements for RPAS are developed for example by the Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems (JARUS). In Europe, the National Civil Aviation Authorities are currently responsible for RPAS operations with a weight of 330.69 pounds or less, which leads to diverging rules from state to state. With the ‘Riga Declaration’, signed by the European Commission and various stakeholders, and the European Aviation Safety Agency’s proposed ‘Concept of Operations’ Europe has taken a decisive step to open its skies for RPAS.