The legal challenges of controlling large numbers of pilotless aircraft – some carrying people – in Britain’s crowded skies are the subject of the latest call for proposals by the Law Commission. In its second consultation paper on ‘aviation autonomy’, the commission states that existing air traffic control rules are unlikely to be able to cope with large numbers of ‘uncrewed aircraft’.
The paper seeks views on how air traffic management and air navigation services will need to be reformed to deal with automated and remotely piloted aircraft. It follows a paper published last year looking at the law related to drones and vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) craft.
The project was requested by the government as part of its ‘Future Flight Challenge’, set up against the background of growing commercial interest in the technology. Earlier this year Amazon announced plans to make deliveries by drone from its ‘fulfilment centre’ in Darlington. Meanwhile authorities in China have approved taxi services using an automated two-seater vertical take-off aircraft made by Chinese company EHang.
‘We are determined to get these new types of aircraft off the ground,’ the aviation minister, Mike Kane, said this week.
However to operate safely, uncrewed aircraft will require new traffic control and navigation services, known in the jargon as ‘uncrewed aircraft systems traffic management (UTM)’. This will involve changes to numerous current rules, for example those requiring voice communication between pilots and controllers in certain types of airspace. Meanwhile uncrewed aircraft will also need more localised weather information, particularly when operating at low altitudes.
The paper makes provisional proposals about how UTM should be regulated and about mechanisms for establishing liability for accidents. Public law commissioner Professor Alison Young said: ‘It is paramount that we get the regulation of these services to uncrewed aircraft right, and that there are appropriate mechanisms in place if things do go wrong. We want to hear from those involved in developing autonomous aircraft or ATM/ANS to unpiloted aircraft, as well as anyone who may be affected by the regulation of autonomous aviation more generally.’
The consultation closes on 18 July.
