Did you buzz your neighbor's shrubs or crash into your garage with a drone? Good news: it might not be your fault!
Researchers at Australia's RMIT University's School of Engineering and Edith Cowan University found that many drone accidents are due to the gadgets themselves rather than human error. Dr. Graham Wild and Dr. Glenn Baxter from RMIT and John Murray of ECU studied 150 civil incidents involving drones and found that 64 percent occurred due to technical problems.
The study, published in the journal Aerospace, pointed to "broken communications links" between the operator and the drone. As a result, the researchers think commercial aircraft-type regulations should be applied to the communications systems of drones.
"Large transport category aircraft, such as those from a Boeing or Airbus, are required to have triple redundant systems for their communications," Dr. Wild said in a statement. "But drones don't and some of the improvements that have reduced the risks in those aircraft could also be used to improve the safety of drones."
Exceptions can be made for drones under 55 pounds, he said, though pilots should have licenses. "It's essential that our safety regulations keep up with this rapidly growing industry," Dr. Wild argued.
The team started its research after reports of a drone collision at Heathrow Airport, though authorities later said it was "not a drone incident." Still, collisions do occur (see the video above), hitting everything from ferris wheels and the Empire State Building to the White House lawn (and there are certainly some dumbasses flying drones who should not be).
For its part, DJI, the world's largest drone maker, wasn't too pleased with the study. In a statement to PCMag, the company's North American corporate communications director, Adam Lisberg, pointed out that the Heathrow Airport incident is believed to have been caused by a plastic bag.
"There has never been a confirmed collision between a civilian drone and a manned aircraft. No one has ever been killed by a civilian drone," Lisberg told PCMag. "While the authors call for more government regulations to ensure drone safety, regulators themselves have taken the opposite position. Since small civilian drones have a much smaller risk profile than manned aircraft, they have encouraged innovators to develop promising technological improvements rather than subject every new drone model to a bureaucratic approval process. That's true in Australia, it's true in the US, and it's true in multiple other jurisdictions where regulators agree there is simply no need to put small drones through the same rigorous years-long airworthiness process as a jumbo jet.
"This paper is utterly specious and its conclusions are implausible," he added. "Equipment failures do occur from time to time, and we are constantly innovating technological improvements to prevent them. But problems with drones are far more likely to occur because of operator error, which is why we support educational efforts to ensure all drone pilots learn to fly their craft safely and responsibly."
Editor's Note: This story was updated on 8/25 with comments from DJI.
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