Placing drone detection sensors directly on helicopters could allow civil rotorcraft, including medical transports on time-sensitive missions, to operate more safely and efficiently in increasingly crowded airspace, according to an executive from a company exploring the possibility.
The concern over drones interfering with helicopters, especially around critical infrastructure such as hospitals, had been growing even before the recent raft of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) sightings in the northeast U.S., which led the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Dec. 20 to ban drones from flying over multiple areas in New Jersey and New York through Jan. 20. The FAA said the temporary flight restrictions were issued for “special security reasons.”
Chip Dick, director of sales for drone detection specialist AirSight, said there has been growing demand for technology that can track UAS and identify operators’ position. Dallas-based AirSight’s hardware and software is deployed at corrections facilities, stadiums, hospitals, airports and other venues where drones are viewed as security risks.
Dick said extending onsite detection systems — which track drones using radio frequency (RF), GPS and radar technology — to in-flight helicopters could have valuable safety benefits.
“If I’m a helicopter pilot on a live system, and I pick up a drone that’s to the north of the hospital, and I see it staying stationary or going that way, I can start vectoring that rotor and come in from the south,” he explained. “Time is critical when you have a patient, a life on the line. Obviously, that’s the whole reason the patient is on the helicopter.”
Dick said AirSight has “had discussions with some in the medical industry to do testing to see if we could put some of the sensors on the aircraft.”
Equipping helicopters with onboard drone detection technology “is something we’re exploring,” Dick said. “I don’t want to say infant stages, because we’ve done some testing in the past.”
Onsite drone detectors are used by hospitals not just to monitor airspace around helipads, but for security more generally. “Not every drone problem is caused by a bad actor,” Dick said. “As an example, we’ve had many instances where you will see drones around helipads at hospitals. Hospitals are generally in neighborhoods. Neighborhoods have kids. Kids have drones, and they go fly them, and they probably do what I would have done at 13 years old and say, ‘Hey, let’s see how high this goes,’ not aware of FAA requirements.”
Those FAA requirements for recreational drone operators mandate flying below 400 ft. during daylight within visual line of sight and away from restricted areas such as airports.
A recent violation of airspace rules by drones at Boston Logan International Airport led to the arrest of two suspected pilots on Dec. 14, with the Boston Police Department saying it used “advanced UAS monitoring technology” to track down the suspects.
A Boston police officer “specializing in real-time crime surveillance detected a UAS operating dangerously close to Logan International Airport,” the department said in a statement. “Leveraging advanced UAS monitoring technology, the officer identified the drone’s location, altitude, flight history and the operators’ position.”
AirSight, while not supplying the technology used in this instance, works with law enforcement agencies to provide similar tracking abilities. Prior to joining AirSight two years ago, Dick worked for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
He noted the course of action police can take against drones is limited by prohibitions in the U.S. against interfering with an aircraft, making identifying operators’ position critical.
“If you physically interfere with a drone, by FAA law, it is the same as interfering with a Boeing 747 aircraft,” DIck noted. “It’s an aircraft. Although we have jamming capabilities that we have used internationally, if you interfere with the signal of a drone, you’re committing a Federal Communications Commission violation.”
He added: “The capabilities to take over the drone, jam the drone, or physically take it down are there. It’s just currently in the U.S. they’re all illegal to use. There’s nothing you can do other than get to that pilot and have him cease and desist, which is why there’s such a big focus in our system to get that information to you in real time so that law enforcement can respond.”
