Europe's aviation safety agency sets up drone collision task force
As drones become more commonplace in the world, regulations and safety testing inevitably follows. The European Aviation Safety Agency announced on Wednesday that it has set up a task force to look at the risks of drones colliding with aircraft.
The announcement, first seen by the Associated Press, says the task force will study different vulnerabilities on aircraft, including outer frames, windshields and engines. They will be looking at all different kinds of aircraft, including large and small planes as well as helicopters.
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If the need exists, EASA may perform actual tests for collisions between drones and aircraft, which would probably mean launching drones at stationary aircraft at certain speeds, rather than flying aircraft into drones.
The task force is made up of aircraft and engine manufacturers and plans to publish its results in July.
A spokesperson for EASA told Mashable the task force has been created based on recent media reports of aircraft and drones colliding.
In April, a British Airways plane hit an object while approaching an airport, and the pilot said he believed it was a drone. It turns out the object may not have been something else.
"Sometimes what was thought to be drone ended up being another object," the spokesperson said. "However it is worth looking at this."
More and more regulations around drones have been surfacing since they've boomed in popularity over the past couple years, including the need to register drones of certain sizes with the U.S. government.
In 2014, the Federal Aviation Administration enacted a law limiting the flight of drones around airports.
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