Drones Raise Safety Issues as Service Roles Multiply

Rescuers in December sent up small drones in a last-ditch effort to locate hikers trapped on Mount Hood in Oregon, and the Forest Service evaluated small drones during a blaze in Montana last summer to see whether they were capable of helping firefighters. The agency says it expects firefighters on the ground to be outfitted with such backpack-sized drones by next year's fire season.

At least three police departments have purchased or have budgeted money to buy small aircraft to help them respond to emergencies. And the Department of Homeland Security expects in the coming months to start testing whether large drones can fly high above airports and use lasers or other measures to deflect shoulder-fired missiles aimed at jetliners.

Despite the enthusiasm of drone users, safety experts are concerned about allowing too many into civil airspace too quickly.

During the rescue efforts on Mount Hood, the small drones crashed 11 times because of high winds, according to the FAA. In April of last year, a Predator B that was patrolling the border for customs officials crashed near homes in Arizona. Investigators said the plane's pilot accidentally shut off its fuel flow.

Mark V. Rosenker, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said investigators will soon issue safety recommendations to FAA and customs officials "about a host of issues on everything from design and operational management to coordination with air traffic control."

"There is obviously a large scope of issues to examine," he said.

Top FAA officials said they were working with manufacturers, government agencies and pilot groups to devise rules and better technology to allow drones to operate safely and with fewer restrictions.

They do not expect to stop their case-by-case approach until the technology improves enough to allow those flying the drones to reliably detect and avoid other aircraft or obstacles in the sky -- just like real pilots in real cockpits, regulators said.

At a recent meeting of industry leaders, military officers, regulators and pilots who are helping the FAA deal with the issue, the participants often got into heated debates about how to set up rules for safely operating drones in civil airspace.

"This is the second revolution in aviation since the Wright Brothers first flew on Kitty Hawk in 1903," said John Walker, an aviation industry consultant who is overseeing the effort to help the FAA. "This is bigger than mixing jet airplanes with prop airplanes and the building of complex airport operations with passenger jets flying today."

Although some government agencies are successfully flying drones in civil airspace, others are expressing frustration at what they call the government's slow pace in approving a potentially helpful tool.

In Florida, Palm Bay police officials last year set aside $35,000 to purchase a small drone and its control systems to help them patrol their 100-square-mile city on the Atlantic Coast, said Doug Muldoon, the department's deputy chief. The drone is equipped with a video or infrared camera.

But Palm Bay's drone, built by Cyber Defense Systems, was grounded by the FAA because the department hadn't obtained a waiver. Police agencies in North Carolina and Southern California have also been told not to fly their drones in the past two years. Palm Bay is working to obtain a certificate, Muldoon said.

But police officials such as Muldoon are particularly irked by the FAA's restrictions because the agency has allowed hobbyists to continue flying larger and faster remote-controlled planes. Those model aircraft often don't have safety features that are standard equipment on drones, which can glide back to earth after running out of power or even return to base after losing a radio signal, police officials said.

John Blitch, who owns a private company and is director of a nonprofit group that both use drones and ground-based robots to respond to emergencies, flew small unmanned planes during the unsuccessful rescue attempts on Mount Hood. He sees vast potential for drones, especially in search-and-rescue operations. But he is frustrated by regulators' hurdles that make it difficult for his pilots to hone their skills before getting FAA permission to fly a mission.

"Our airplanes are small and even look like birds -- so much so that other birds attack them and make mating advances on our aircraft," said Blitch, who runs the nonprofit Alliance for Robot Assisted Crisis Assessment and Response. "The government doesn't regulate birds."