As part of its rulemaking process, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), released a new Opinion relating to drone operations. Opinion 05/2019 concerns drones which pose a low risk and fall within the proposed ‘specific’ category. This Opinion is due be discussed by a special EASA Committee in December 2019, and is expected to be approved by Member States in February 2020.
The objective of Opinion 05/2019 is to provide cost-efficient rules for low-risk unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operations. It proposes the addition of two standard scenarios (STSs) in Appendix 1 to the Annex to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/947, defining the conditions when UAS operators can start an operation after having submitted a declaration to the competent authority. Moreover, the Opinion proposes the introduction of two new Parts in the Annex to Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/945, including the technical requirements that UAS need to meet in order to be operated in the STSs, and establishing two new UAS classes — classes C5 and C6. The conditions to conduct the STSs are based on the in-service experience of some Member States and they have been validated through the application of the specific operations risk assessment (SORA). The proposed changes are expected to increase the cost-effectiveness for UAS operators, manufacturers and competent authorities, and to improve the harmonisation of UAS operations in the airspace.
For more information visit:
https://www.easa.europa.eu/document-library/opinions/opinion-052019
