The European Aviation Safety Agency’s Prototype Commission Regulation on Unmanned Aircraft Operations would seem to be on the right lines, when one listens to Andrew Charlton, Executive Director of Drone Alliance Europe, contacted by EUROPE on Wednesday 7 September.
According to Charlton, the EASA proposals “are a good start”. He feels two important points have been introduced by the agency: greater flexibility with regard to regulation of drone activity that will allow each member state to better suit rules to its own situation and recognition of Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM). UTM mirrors Air Traffic Management. For Charlton, developing a system such as this will bring greater effectiveness, for example, on “geofencing”, which makes it possible automatically to stop the overflight of certain geographical areas that present risks, such as airports.
Within the framework of the aviation strategy brought forward by the Commission at the end of 2015 (see EUROPE 11438), EASA, at the request of the European Commission, presented a provisional version of the regulation on drone flights on 22 August, with the aim of providing clarity, in particular on the responsibilities of the member states.
For the moment, the responsibility of the European Commission extends only to drones weighing over 150 kg. For this reason, it has proposed an amendment to Regulation 216/2008 (see EUROPE 11540) that will allow it to regulate all drone activity. The initiative is currently being debated by Parliament and the Council and should be adopted before the end of the year.
Recently, a joint statement was published by all stakeholders in the aviation sector calling for closer regulation of the use of drones, inter alia, requiring systematic registration and making holding a pilot’s certificate compulsory (see EUROPE 11616). The statement, in Charlton’s view, was “disappointing”. He would have liked to see a distinction drawn between professional and leisure drones. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)