Drone strike sharpens focus on ‘effective’ airspace management

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(Credit: Matthias Fischer/Pixabay)

Last week, a De Havilland CL-415 water bomber was damaged after it collided with a drone whilst fighting the wildfires that have and continue to consume neighbourhoods around Los Angeles including Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

The aircraft, which had been operating in a so-called FAA Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) zone on Thursday January 9th, suffered material damage to the leading edge of a wing.

Reports suggest the flight crew did not notice the strike when it occurred and continued to pick up and drop water from Santa Monica Bay on the nearby blazes.

“It wasn’t until they landed at Van Nuys airport that the maintenance staff noticed that there was a fist-sized hole in the leading edge of the wing, inboard of the landing light,” said LA Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott.

The FBI issued a statement confirming it is looking for a drone pilot involved in last week’s collision. LA police have also made three arrests linked to two drone incidents related to aerial firefighting. However, no details have been released and it is not clear if any of the individuals arrested were linked to the incident involving the CL-415.

Luckily, the part needed to fix the 18 square inch hole in the CL-415, aka Super Scooper, was already on its way to LA on Friday. De Havilland had the piece of wing structure in stock and shipped it out immediately.

The collision brings the need for de-conflicted airspace into greater focus, especially as the aviation industry looks towards the arrival and subsequent commercial scaling of autonomous uncrewed aircraft systems.

Industry reaction

Revolution.Aero spoke to a number of startup companies developing disruptive air and uncrewed traffic management (ATM and UTM) technology to get their reaction to the incident and ask how best they believe events like this can be avoided in the future.

“This is a highly unfortunate situation. The FAA issues TFRs for good reasons and the public needs to respect these important restrictions for public safety as well as the protection of first responders,” Tamara Casey, founder of AURA Network Systems tells Revolution.Aero.

“The material damage to the aircraft underscores the critical importance of de-conflicted airspace. Protecting these essential resources and ensuring the safety of the crews already in harm’s way is paramount. Aerial firefighting is dangerous enough without adding this kind of unnecessary risk.”

Jia Xu, CEO of SkyGrid, a Boeing joint venture developing third-party scalable infrastructure for low-altitude air traffic management, agrees with Casey.

“Right now, we lack comprehensive systems to monitor and mitigate non-cooperative aircraft in real-time conditions at lower altitudes, leaving gaps in enforcement and prevention,” he says. “This is a challenge that both industry and the public sector must work together to solve.

“The road to widespread beyond visual line of sight [BVLOS] operations and AAM is built on safety and events like this only make it harder. To make progress, we need a unified commitment to technology, policy and education that ensures airspace safety and reinforces public trust.”

What can be done today?

The FAA relies on drone operators to respect the TFRs it puts in place. If they don’t, it can make detection challenging because the size of the drone means it doesn’t typically appear on radar. There are a number of companies out there working on small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) detection and mitigation but quickly deploying these systems in emergency situations can be difficult – and in last week’s case impossible due to lack of development.

AURA’s Casey says: “A layered approach to overall airspace awareness is needed. Cooperative aircraft using ADS-B [Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast] know to stay well clear of areas where TFRs are in place. Drone operators must do the same. Unfortunately, many drone operators ignore TFRs and are not always compliant with the FAA remote ID requirements, making tracking and accountability difficult.”

Peeling apart the layers of airspace awareness, Xu points to five areas that can help to create a safer ecosystem for all.

Firstly, education and awareness are essential, such as training and certifying drone pilots on airspace regulations, restricted zones and responsible operation. Also, public education campaigns can emphasise the risks and consequences of unauthorised drone flights in restricted areas, such as wildfire zones, to foster safer drone operation practices.

Alongside education, effective airspace management requires proactive planning and coordination to ensure that all airspace users understand where they can and cannot operate. “Integrating flight planning tools, geofenced zones and coordinated schedules for both manned and unmanned aircraft will reduce the risk of conflicts and improve situational awareness across all stakeholders,” explains Xu.

Last but by no means least, advanced ATM and UTM technologies and third-party services offer a pathway to safer airspace for all. This is because current ATM systems often lack sufficient coverage for low-altitude airspace, where drones typically operate.

Traffic monitoring services: Systems like ground-based traffic surveillance (GBTS) service provide real-time airspace awareness by integrating data from cooperative sources (e.g. ADS-B, Mode S transponders) and non-cooperative sources (e.g. radar and multilateration systems). Multilateration is the process of locating an object by computing the time difference of arrival of a signal emitted from the object to three or more receivers. This enables a comprehensive traffic picture to identify both cooperative and non-cooperative aircraft.

Geofencing and alerts: Automated geofencing capabilities prevent unauthorised drone entry into restricted zones. Real-time alerts ensure that operators and authorities are notified when airspace violations occur.

Enhanced low-altitude coverage: Deploying multilateration and surveillance solutions designed for low-altitude environments can address gaps in traditional ATM coverage, creating a safer operational framework for drones and other aircraft.

How might new technology help first responders?

Casey says AURA welcomes the opportunity to work with the first responder community. “Not only can the AURA communications network be used to improve coordination between aircraft and their dispatch/oversight personnel but it can also be used to monitor critical aircraft telemetry information from the ground to help ease pilot workloads.”

AURA is developing a Deterministic Distributed Radar capability to be used in conjunction with the FAA’s other radar and airspace awareness technologies to enhance overall situational awareness. Capabilities such as this can expand coverage, particularly in areas outside of the FAA’s Mode C Veils where ADS-B is required.

“We are focused on designing a solution to meet the FAA’s requirements for detecting non-cooperative [no ADS-B or transponder] aircraft. Our system, along with others from innovative startups, can work together to provide air traffic controllers – and ultimately first responders – with greater overall situational awareness,” explains Casey.

Where AURA is developing a specific radar capability, SkyGrid is taking a more holistic approach. The company is aggregating surveillance data from multiple sources, such as ADS-B, radar and potentially Remote ID. This will provide system users with improved situational awareness of aircraft operators once it is deployed, including those operating firefighting and emergency aircraft. “This improvement in traffic awareness will help operators to remain well clear of other traffic, including non-cooperative targets such as drones,” says Xu.

Specifically addressing last week’s incident, a fully deployed SkyGrid system will integrate surveillance data from various sources to provide an aggregated traffic picture for the operator. The same system used to support safe UAS operations can also play a role in identifying and addressing unauthorised aircraft, such as the drone in question.

That said, countering unauthorised drones is a complex challenge that extends beyond monitoring. “It involves questions of authority, defeat mechanisms, agency coordination and operational protocols,” says Xu. “SkyGrid can be a vital part of the broader solution, working alongside regulators, technology providers and law enforcement to address this multifaceted issue.”

Aside from the fact that the pilots were able to continue their mission and land the aircraft safely back at Van Nuys, there is another silver lining to be taken from disaster response learning.

Firefighting and natural disaster response scenarios are where air traffic management is most challenging and often ad-hoc. The benefit of that is the technology and operational concepts developed for these challenging scenarios concurrently push the boundaries of air traffic management capabilities, which has a positive effect on aviation as a whole.

Unfortunately, as fires continue to burn around LA and with the traditional wildfire season from May until October still to come in California – not to mention other parts of the US – air traffic managers are set to get a lot more practice at safely and effectively managing airspace.

*Image credit: Matthias Fischer | License

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