| Background: In July 2019 there was an incident involving an Alauda Airspeeder MKII unmanned aircraft at Goodwood Aerodrome, West Sussex, during a demonstration flight. There were no fatalities or injuries, and the unmanned aircraft was destroyed. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) investigated the accident, and the report can be found on the AAIB website. The CAA is required to formally respond to the AAIB within 70 days. |
CAA UAS Unit action: The CAA UAS Unit has been and will continue to be committed to continuously improve as the UAS regulator. The Unit has already initiated several workstreams to address the safety recommendations in the report and significant progress has been made. The audit process had been reviewed and updated prior to this report, to ensure that there is suitable and appropriate oversight carried out. The team are finalising processes that will trigger additional on-site oversight based on the complexity of an operation or platform. There has been an upskilling within the team and recruitment of staff into the UAS Sector Team with specific operational and technical background in airworthiness and avionics, along with a policy to ensure the involvement of other capability areas is implemented where necessary. We will: – Review application and authorisation processes for Specific category operations. – Review oversight and audit processes. – Review staff training and competency requirements. – Review policy relating to Specific category operations. – Review guidance in CAPs such as 722 and 722A. We will keep our key stakeholder forum and representative organisations updated on progress. |
CAA
4 March 2021