The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a new list of drone sightings on 23rd February 2017. The 1,270 long list covers the period from 1st February 2016 to 30th September 2016. It follows on from the previous release of 582 records in March 2016, which covered the period from 21st August 2015 to 31st January 2016, and the 764 records released in August 2015, covering the period from 13th November 2014 to 20th August 2015.
The FAA states that no collision between civilian aircraft and a drone has been confirmed, instead saying that every investigation has found that the reported collisions were instead with birds or with other items such as posts, or even structural failures unrelated to UAV collision. The majority of reports are just sightings of UAVs sharing the airspace, and that reported near misses and close calls are down at just 3.4%, and that figure has remained almost constant with the previous sets of data.
Although it is true that the number of reports has increased (1,270 up from 582) this is due mainly to the fact that the reporting period was longer and that more and more people are buying UAVs. The FAA estimates that more than 770,000 drone operators have been registered since the December 2015 registration rule went into effect.
In all the data sets there are reports of objects other than drones, including balloons, and a “blob”. This indicates that “drone” is being used as a catch-all term and skewing the public perception of their safety.
The conclusion drawn is that most of the data is simply reports or sightings of drones, not necessarily acting outside of the regulations.
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