Unmanned aircrafts (drones):
Drones are defined as all aircraft designed to fly without a pilot on board. The traffic management system that feeds drones with information on when, where and how to fly is called the U-Space. Drones and U-Space are important for the greening and digitalisation of the European economy. European rules keep drone operations safe, secure, green and respectful of privacy, and therefore promote social acceptability of the technology.
There are many different uses for drones. While they can be used for fun, there is a growing number of commercial uses for drones. These include:
- Agriculture: Crop monitoring, field mapping, crop spraying, and livestock management.
- Infrastructure inspection, construction and surveying: Site mapping, progress monitoring, and 3D modelling.
- Innovative Air Mobility (IAM): Flying of passengers or cargo for commercial or other purposes such as Emergency Medical Services (EMSs).
- Search and rescue (SAR): Drones equipped with cameras and thermal imaging sensors are deployed in SAR operations to locate missing persons, detect survivors in disaster zones, and deliver supplies in an emergency.
- Environmental monitoring: Environmental-monitoring tasks such as wildlife tracking, habitat assessment, and pollution detection.
- Emergency response: Including firefighters and law enforcement agencies, for situational awareness, incident management, and damage assessment during emergencies and natural disasters.
- Media and entertainment: For filming aerial shots in movies, television shows, commercials, and live events.
- Education and research: When incorporated into educational curricula and research projects in fields such as engineering, geography, environmental science, and wildlife biology.
A drone can be operated in the “Open “category when it:
- bears one of the class identification labels 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4; or
- is privately built and its weight is less than 25 kg; or
- it is placed on the market before 31 December 2023 and bears no class identification label as mentioned above;
- will not be operated directly over people, unless it bears a class identification label or is lighter than 250 g. (Please refer to subcategories of operations: A1, A2 and A3 to find out where you can fly with your drone);
- will be maintained in visual line of sight (VLOS) or the remote pilot will be assisted by a UA observer;
- is flown at a height of no more than 120 metres;
- will not carry any dangerous goods and will not drop any material.
A drone can be operated in the ‘in the ‘specific’ or the ‘certified’ category, when it does not meet the requirements laid out under the open category.
Source (Open Category)
Source (Specific Category)
Regulatory reference: Article 4 and Article 20 of EU Regulation 2019/947; Annex part A and Article 5(1) of EU Regulation 2019/947, Parts 1 to 5 Annex of EU Regulation 2019/945.
| Drone Type | Subcategory | Operational Restrictions | Drone Operator Registration | Remote Pilot Competence | Remote Pilot Minimum Age |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Privately built < 250g (before 01/01/2024) | A1 (can also fly in subcategory A3) | - May fly over uninvolved people (should be avoided when possible) - No flight over assemblies of people |
No, unless camera / sensor on board and a drone is not a toy | No training required | No minimum age |
| C0 (< 250g) | A1 (can also fly in subcategory A3) | - No flight over assemblies of people - Maintain flight altitude below 120m above ground level |
No, unless camera / sensor on board and a drone is not a toy | Read carefully the user manual | 16*, no minimum age if drone is a toy |
| C1 (< 900g) | A1 (can also fly in subcategory A3) | - No flight expected over uninvolved people (if it happens, overflight should be minimised) - No flight over assemblies of people - Maintain flight altitude below 120m above ground level |
Yes | - Read carefully the user manual - Obtain a ‘Proof of completion for online training’ for A1/A3 ‘open’ subcategory by:
|
16* |
| C2 (< 4kg) | A2 (can also fly in subcategory A3) | - Must not overfly uninvolved people - Maintain a horizontal distance of 30 m from uninvolved people (can be reduced to 5 m if the low-speed function is activated) - Maintain flight altitude below 120m above ground level |
Yes | - Read carefully the user manual - Obtain a ’Remote pilot certificate of competency’ for A2 ‘open’ subcategory by:
|
16* |
| C3 (< 25kg) | A3 | - Must not overfly uninvolved people - Maintain a horizontal distance of 150 m from uninvolved people and urban areas - Maintain flight altitude below 120m above ground level |
Yes | - Read carefully the user manual - Obtain a ‘Proof of completion for online training’ for A1/A3 ‘open’ subcategory by:
|
16* |
| C4 (< 25kg) | A3 | - Must not overfly uninvolved people - Maintain a horizontal distance of 150 m from uninvolved people and urban areas - Maintain flight altitude below 120m above ground level |
Yes | - Read carefully the user manual - Obtain a ‘Proof of completion for online training’ for A1/A3 ‘open’ subcategory by:
|
16* |
| Privately built < 25kg (before 01/01/2024) | A3 | - Must not overfly uninvolved people - Maintain a horizontal distance of 150 m from uninvolved people and urban areas - Maintain flight altitude below 120m above ground level |
Yes | - Read carefully the user manual - CObtain a ‘Proof of completion for online training’ for A1/A3 ‘open’ subcategory by:
|
16* |
The ever increasing digitalisation of services and devices is simplifying many aspects of our life and improving our well-being as well as offering new possibilities.
However such positive evolution does not come without risk. Individuals may attempt to steal information, manipulate it or disrupt services for their specific reasons, being them economic or political, causing adverse effects to the European citizens.
Civil Aviation is not immune to the so called cyber risks, in fact the whole aviation system is getting more and more digitalised and most of the services essential for flying are becoming highly interconnected.
To this extent aviation stakeholders need to ensure that digital services and devices are capable of withstanding cyber-attacks. The term cybersecurity identifies indeed the protection of the digital information which is exchanged by electronic systems and devices or stored by them.
All the systems which expose an interface, are connected to the internet, or more in general, are not physically isolated, are likely to be attacked by “hackers”. In light of this, it is of outmost importance for an organization to manage the risk of a cyber-attack. At first by understanding the potential impact and the likelihood of an occurrence and then by implementing controls for the most effective trade-off for security. In general the higher is the potential impact, the lower shall be the likelihood, so controls implementation effort should be prioritised accordingly.