Thursday, June 05, 2014

Drone-Passenger Jet Collision? Mystery Clouds A Near Miss: Officials and Drone Enthusiasts Are Still Puzzling Over Exactly What Happened

The Wall Street Journal
By Jack Nicas


June 5, 2014 8:21 p.m. ET


Weeks after a federal regulator first publicly described a near miss between a drone and an airliner, officials and drone enthusiasts are still puzzling over exactly what happened, a mystery that illustrates the challenges in tracking unmanned aircraft in U.S. skies.

A Federal Aviation Administration official said on May 8 that an American Airlines Group Inc. jet in March nearly hit a model aircraft around 2,300 feet above Tallahassee, Fla. The official said the agency didn't know who had piloted the unmanned aircraft, but described the incident as dangerous.

The account angered many unmanned-aircraft enthusiasts, who saw it as an effort to justify FAA restrictions on commercial use of unmanned aircraft. Those enthusiasts have homed in on the few details known about the incident and settled on one general conclusion.

"The whole thing really hasn't made sense," said Florida State University physics professor Jeff Owens, who is vice president of a Tallahassee model-aircraft club that has debated the near miss at meetings and mapped out the incident's location in relation to the club's airfield.

Model aircraft are typically used by hobbyists and are models of larger airplanes. Drones typically don't resemble full-size aircraft and are more advanced and nimble than model planes, though the term drones is also used to describe any unmanned aircraft.

The FAA prohibits the commercial use of drones without its authorization. It has approved just two commercial drones for use off the Alaska coast, but the agency is now considering expedited approvals for several other uses, including filmmaking and agriculture. The FAA generally allows the recreational use of drones, though it urges users to follow several guidelines, including flying below 400 feet and staying away from airports.

Last month, the FAA said a model F-4 fighter jet with camouflage paint came so close to a 50-seat regional jet on March 22 that the pilot reported to air-traffic control that "he was sure he had collided with it." The agency since has said that its investigation has revealed little and that it has no other information.

The Academy of Model Aeronautics, a national association that helps regulate and insure model aircraft, said the FAA contacted the group the day after the incident. Association officials interviewed local model-aircraft operators and retailers, but found no leads.

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, the biggest drone trade group, said its inquiry into the incident also found nothing. "Many details remain a mystery and, for that reason, we believe it's important not to draw conclusions about what happened," the group said.

Adding to the mystery: A person with knowledge of the airline pilot's report said that, in contrast to the FAA official's account, the pilot, from American's US Airways unit, never believed his aircraft was in danger.

The FAA said it interviewed the pilot and stands by its account of the incident.

Drone pilots and advocates say they are skeptical of the FAA account in part because few model aircraft can operate at 2,300 feet. They also express doubt that a pilot flying at hundreds of miles an hour could describe the model aircraft so specifically.

"When you're in a cockpit, you don't see a bird until it hits your windshield," said private pilot Chad Dennis, an aerospace instructor at Middle George State College and the chairman of Georgia's working group on drones.

Two commercial airline pilots, including Sean Cassidy, national safety coordinator for a big pilots union, said pilots can make out objects if they come close enough and that it isn't unrealistic for the pilot to have recognized a model F-4 if he was an aviation enthusiast.

American declined to make the pilot available for an interview.

The dearth of information about a close call, despite the efforts of so many to investigate it, underscores the FAA's challenges in regulating drones in the U.S. The agency has yet to finalize formal rules for unmanned aircraft, so drones aren't required to have tracking technology or to be registered with the government or an insurance company.

Safety experts said near misses between manned aircraft are easier to investigate because the vast majority of planes carry transponders and show up on radar. Air-traffic controllers can't see drones on their scopes, nor can the systems on commercial passenger planes that scan for other aircraft. And basic rules for pilots to visually scan for traffic become more difficult with drones.

"The target that jet pilots are looking for is smaller and harder to see, and the other vehicle doesn't have a pilot in it," said John Cox, chief executive of Safety Operating Systems, an air-safety consulting firm.

Manned aircraft normally should be at least 1,000 feet apart vertically and several miles apart laterally. The FAA said in September that its most recent twelve months of data show roughly 4,400 incidents in which aircraft flew too close to each other.

Without a definitive account, alternate theories have cropped up. One scenario promoted by drone enthusiasts is that the pilot actually saw one of the full-sized F-4 fighter jets stationed at nearby Tyndall Air Force Base, which are former manned aircraft turned drones.

A full-sized F-4 would be hard to miss: it is 63 feet long, with a wingspan of roughly 38 feet. An Air Force spokeswoman said none of Tyndall's unmanned F-4s "were anywhere near where the near miss occurred."

In talks around Tallahassee and among the drone community, "people keep repeating the Air Force thing," said Steve Hogan, a Tallahassee attorney who represents many drone users. "If that isn't what happened, then I really don't know what to tell you."


Source: http://online.wsj.com

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