UAS Mishaps and Accidents

    When examining aviation operations, both manned and unmanned, the risks and hazards do not stray that far from each other. The list of risks and hazards is quite extensive when including all possible general and/or specific risks present in the aviation industry. A few interconnected risks and hazards that exist for both manned and unmanned aviation alike include airspace separation, sustainable communications, as well as human factor issues. Airspace separation includes detect and avoid risks as well as integrations of new aircraft types into the NAS such as UAS and urban air mobility (UAM) technologies. The human factors may vary between the two aviation categories, but human factors in general will remain a constant issue. The more specific human factor hazards include human/ automation interaction which can involve active failures that can lead to accidents and a range of unsafe acts (Glussich & Histon, 2010). Additional risks and hazards include latent failures, which includes target fixation and inadequate supervision, as well as mode confusion (Glussich & Histon, 2010). There is also pilot complacency on automation as well as human-machine interface (HMI) design issues. 

    As more UAS companies begin to stretch out from visual line of sight (VLOS) and into beyond visual  line of sight (BVLOS) operations either through acquiring waivers or the restrictions and regulations adjusting to the higher demand and improved technology, the level of risk dramatically increases resulting in the need for pilots to be able to identify and mitigate those risks. A well discussed tool in the manned aviation platform that is available to UAS pilots includes the operational risk management (ORM) assessment tool. The ORM assessment tool can assist with not only identifying underlying risks within the operational stages but also provide standard procedures during risk management for an entire unit (Marshall et al., 2016). Situational awareness technology can also assist with risk mitigation by allowing the tech to contribute to the consistence of operations as well as making risk prediction easier while the human is utilized for flexible decision-making skills (Rattigan, 2016). 

 

    Human factors in UAS operations, as in manned aviation, is on the trend to be the top cause for incidents and accidents. Currently, the majority of UAS failures are contributed to technology which is consistent with early years of piloted aviation as well (Glussich & Histon, 2010). Once the technology improves, human factors will be the predominate cause of accidents (Glussich & Histon, 2010). However human factor issues include perception and decision-making issues that can result in errors that include airspace violations, loss of control, as well as controlled flight into terrain. All human factor issues can have numerous errors associated with each and it is predicted that the human factor issue-based accidents will increase, as it did with manned aviation, once the technology becomes more sophisticated and reliable. 

 


References 

 

Glussich, D. & Histon, J. (2010). Human / automation interaction accidents: Implications for UAS operations. 29th Digital Avionics Systems Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, 2010, pp. 4.A.3-1-4.A.3-11, doi: 10.1109/DASC.2010.5655352.

 

Marshall, D. M., Barnhart, R. K., Shappee, E., & Most, M. T. (Eds.). (2016). Introduction to unmanned aircraft systems. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu

 

Rattigan, K. (2016). How Can You Mitigate Risks When Flying a Drone Beyond Visual Line of Sight?. Robinson & Cole Data Privacy and Security Insider.  Retrieved from https://www. dataprivacyandsecurityinsider.com/2016/12/how-can-you-mitigate-risks-when-flying-a-drone-beyond-visual-line-of-sight/  

 

 

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