Over the course of the first half of 2017, a 75 percent expected increase in drone-related safety incidents by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has proven to be for naught, according to a recent report.
“However, the first half of 2017 saw significantly fewer occurrences than predicted, given the previous data,” the report stated. “Current forecasts, incorporating data up to the end of June 2017, predict the number of RPAS occurrences reported to the ATSB in 2017 to be comparable to 2016.”
While both versions of “A Safety Analysis of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, 2012 to 2016,” released in March and this month respectively, determined the number of drones in the skies are still likely to rapidly increase, at least for the moment, their introduction has proven safer than expected. The number of safety occurrences involving them had increased rapidly between 2012 and 2016, but thus far for 2017, the incident numbers remain on par with 2016.
That being said, the ATSB still dubs their rapid growth an emerging and insufficiently understood safety risk. In 2016, 69 near encounters involved drones, while between January 2012 and June 2017 nearly half of near collisions involved drones almost colliding with manned aircraft. Mostly these incidents have been contained to urban areas and above 1,000 ft above sea level.
As yet, no full on collisions have occurred with drones in Australia, but there have been five such collisions abroad.