You Have Control

Pushing the wrong button or failing to attach a prop correctly might be a remote pilot’s nightmare and hence maybe why it is tempting to think that such a thing couldn’t happen to you. After all, you know your equipment inside out and have tens, perhaps even hundreds, of incident-free flying hours behind you.

But as a remote pilot, you should be keenly aware of other factors that could indirectly or directly affect your performance and decrease the safety of your operations.

Drones have advanced safety technology, including highly autonomous flight capabilities, object detection and avoidance, and emergency return features. Yet Mandatory Occurrence Reports (MOR) and Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) findings highlight HF’s increasing role in drone incidents reported by approved operators. 2021 data shows that over 30% of reported loss of control (LOC) events were caused by human error – the most reported factor.

The role of Human Factors (HF) in aviation safety has been recognised and studied since the 1970s. How people behave under stress, when fatigued or impaired; the ease with which we can become distracted by – and sometimes fixated on – non-mission-critical events; the psychology of crew and team interactions; the risks of complacency that comes with familiarity.