Cites Information Presented By BALPA, Others

A report released by the U.K. House of Commons Science and Technology Committee indicates that helicopters are the manned aircraft at the greatest risk from consumer drones.

Helicopter Investor reports that the report cites information presented by a specialist from BALPA, who said that helicopters are "supremely susceptible to catastrophic damage" from a drone strike, particularly impacts to the windscreen and rotors. The BALPA representative also said that helicopters more often fly over dense urban areas where there is little margin for error, and helicopters are more likely to fly in areas where drones might also be present, such as traffic and police incidents.

Babcock International, one of the U.K.'s largest air ambulance operators, has called for temporary flight restriction zones around helicopter landing sites, including ad-hoc LZs. A representative from Babcock and Capt. Tim Pottage, Communications & External Relations Sub-Committee Chairman, said an exclusion zone of one kilometer (0.6 mile) should be required unless coordinated with the helicopter pilot.

“The Government should introduce temporary drone flight restriction zones around helicopter landing zones. The Government should publish findings from a review on this and legislate accordingly within the next twelve months,” the report concluded.

Concerning commercial airliners, the report cites a U.K. CAA analysis which indicates that "It is considered unlikely that a small drone would cause significant damage to a modern turbo-fan jet engine; even if it did, a multi-engine aircraft would still be likely to be able to land safely. The likelihood of a small drone being in proximity of a passenger aircraft when it is travelling fast enough to potentially damage its windscreen is currently about two per million flights. And; the likelihood of a small drone hitting a passenger aircraft windscreen at sufficient speed to rupture it is much smaller than the probability of it being in the proximity of an aircraft."

However, Capt. Pottage said he was "concerned" that the CAA held that view. "There has been no testing of a drone against a large commercial high bypass jet engine—none at all. Anecdotal evidence suggests that it would cause a catastrophic failure, causing a blade to shed and not to be contained within the engine cell," he said.

(Image from file)

FMI: Source report
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