NANFeatures/Vol.11/No.117/2017 (Aug. 4)
Drones technology: Prospects and challenges
A News Analysis by Sumaila Ogbaje, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
Observers in aviation sector note that Nigeria airspace system is designed to service the manned aircraft of different sizes for safe flight operations.
However, experts have identified the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), popularly known as drones, as a new entrant to aviation sector which many stakeholders have solicited their integration to the nation’s airspace.
But aviation pundits express fear that the coming of RPAS to the airspace could pose challenges to air transport safety if not properly regulated.
According to them, RPAS are pilotless and non-crewed aircraft that are capable of flight either by remote control or through the use of on-board computers.
In the light of this, Minister of State for Aviation Hadi Sirika said the use of RPAS or drones in Nigeria should be regulated to allay the fears.
He observed that its integration to the airspace systems would ensure safety and afford the country of the opportunity to exploit the benefit of the emerging technology of drones.
At a symposium for Africa and Indian Ocean organised by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Transportation in Abuja recently, Sirika said the government would work hard to integrate RPAS operations to its airspace.
He said aviation was gradually moving away from traditional system of pilots flying jet liners from one destination to another to an emerging RPAS.
According to him, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) needs to incorporate RPAS and their users to the Nigerian culture of safety and responsibility in a way that does not stifle the enthusiasm for this growing industry.
Sirika said NCAA had established RPAS team that would include a wide variety of stakeholders in the aviation industry.
He said the team would analyse safety data developed to identify emerging threats that it might pose to aircraft, people, and property as well as develop mitigation strategies to address these threats and prevent future accidents.
Encouraging its integration, Dr Bernard Aliu, President of ICAO, said the organisation would help member states to develop regulations for the use of RPAS.
“The issues are the increasing challenges states are facing in developing drone regulations and the increasing report of close encounters between commercial air transport aircraft and drones,’’ he observed.
Irrespective of the envisaged challenges, Mr Abdulsalam Mohammed, Rector, Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, called for immediate integration of RPAS to the nation’s airspace.
He insisted that the integration was necessary although it would be challenging to separate between manned and unmanned aircraft in the airspace because of the difference in their operations.
He, however, cautioned that there was need to have strong regulation in the industry to discourage indiscriminate use of RPAS, especially in environments where there were security challenges.
“Another key challenge is enabling RPAS to detect other airspace users, including other aircrafts and making RPAS detectable to other airspace users and on the safety concern, due to the rapid growth of the industry,’’ he said.
Similarly, Mr Fola Akinkuotu, Managing Director, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), said there would be challenges in integrating the RPAS system to the nation’s airspace because of the expected increase in traffic.
He said that the airspace, like the road traffic, when congested, needed better control and ways that accident could be discouraged because of increase in traffic.
According to him, the congestions are going to be heavy and what NAMA has to do is to take actions that will mitigate the consequence of the increase because it will have to design systems so that increase in drone would not impact on manned traffic.
“Do we have segregated drone corridors? Do we have drones only operated from a particular area? Do we have a system where we will allow them to go into controlling their own space?
“These are the things that we need to design and put in place as regulations and requirements; and if what you are flying is in conflict with the regulations, we have to design a system to identify this,’’ he said.
However, Mr Dele Sesegbon, the Director of General Aviation, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), said the agency was determined to regulate the use of RPAS in Nigerian airspace to drive both commercial and private RPAS operation.
He said the authority had been working with NAMA to integrate unmanned aircraft in the country to the airspace.
He explained that NCAA’s rules and regulations prohibited flying drones over people to guard against the effect of its failure.
According to him, the failure rate of drones has not been known because there are no enough data to determine that.
“The authority will integrate them to our airspace system as well as giving them clearance on the same level with the aircraft as to what duty they want to perform,’’ he said.
By and large, a drone expert, Mr Sunday Idajili, nonetheless, observed that the usefulness of RPAS could be abused if not properly regulated since the technology was recent in Nigeria and a large number of people were already in possession of the device.
“RPAS technology also has some problems such as privacy issues and using drones to launch attacks.
“The problem the regulators have now is how to allow this technology open new jobs, new opportunities without necessarily getting to wrong hands.
“So, if it can be controlled, then this will be the next big deal just like we have internet before and whatever that is good also have the bad aspect of it.
“Drone is just like any other aircraft, the difference is that it is smaller and there is no pilot on board but the same principle of flight applies to it.
“It is the same knowledge you need to fly it but it is just that there is no human being on board and the same forces of nature that affect manned aircraft also affect unmanned aircraft,’’ he warned.(NANFeatures)
**If used, please credit the writer as well as News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)