Drones pose increasing risk to airliners near major US airports

Boston Globe

21-04-2025

An Associated Press analysis of an
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The first reports of near misses involving drones were logged in 2014, the AP found. The number of such encounters spiked the following year. Over the last decade, drones accounted for 51 percent — 122 of 240 — of reported near misses, according to AP's analysis.
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Passenger jets have long been subject to risks around airports — whether from bird strikes or congested airspace — as was made clear by the
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The threat from drones has become more acute in the last decade as the use of quadcopters and remote-controlled planes has exploded in popularity. The
'If you have the money, you can go on the internet and buy a pretty sophisticated drone that can reach altitudes they really have no business being at,' said William Waldock, a professor of safety science at
The risk is most acute near airports because that is where the flight paths of drones and airplanes most overlap, experts said.
The incidents represent only a portion of such close calls because the
'The FAA recognizes that urgency, and we all know additional changes need to be made to allow the airports to go out and detect and mitigate where necessary,' said Hannah Thach, executive director of the
The FAA said it has taken steps to mitigate the risks of drones. It has prohibited nearly all drones from flying near airports without prior authorization, though such rules are difficult to enforce, and recreational users may not be aware of restrictions.
The agency requires
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The agency has also been
Experts said the FAA and other authorities could do more. They suggested creating a system similar to speed cameras on roadways that could capture a drone's transponder code and send its pilots a ticket in the mail.
They also said the FAA should consider regulations that require all manufacturers to program a drone's GPS unit to prevent it from flying near airports and other sensitive areas, a method called 'geofencing.'
DJI, a leading drone maker, used such geofencing restrictions for years. However, it
Adam Welsh, head of global policy at DJI, said managing requests from authorized users to temporarily disable the geofencing became an increasingly time-consuming task. More than one million such requests were processed last year.
'We had around-the-clock service, but the number of applications coming in were becoming really hard to handle,' Welsh said. 'They all had to be reviewed individually.'
With no other manufacturers enabling geofencing, and without government rules requiring it, DJI decided to end the practice, he said.
The FAA declined to say if it is considering whether to mandate geofencing.
Experts said authorities should take more aggressive action to hold drone users accountable for violating restricted airspace — to highlight the problem and deter others from breaking the rules, pointing to recent arrests that they hoped might send such a message.
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In December, for example, Boston police
A month later, a small drone collided with a 'Super Scooper' plane that was fighting wildfires raging through Southern California. The drone punched a hole in the plane's left wing, causing enough damage that officials grounded the aircraft for several days to make repairs.
Authorities tracked down the 56-year-old drone operator, who pleaded guilty to a federal charge of recklessly flying his aircraft. The man, who has yet to be sentenced,