Aviation Security and the growing threat of drones

 Hello again my readers!


    In this weeks Blog I will be discussing the increase threat of drones towards commercial aviation, and what are the mitigations that could be implemented and what has the Transport Security Agency (TSA) done to create a Pre Planned Response towards this threat.


We all know on September 11, 2001, acts of terrorism were committed towards the United States, this devastated the aviation industry and it started to crumble because people were afraid to fly. TSA was then created to combat these acts and prevent this from happening again by screening people who are entering the airport or boarding an aircraft. This prevented multiple terrorist attacks and saved many lives in the process, but what if I told you that the increase in drone activity is another means to commit acts of terrorism?. Unmanned Aircraft Systems increased activity due to its popularity among people who are not just into videography or photography but also for recreational activity too. New to the skies, there was really not much of guidelines to where they can operate. this continued on until the first drone incident happened in Canada in 2017 when a Skyjet airplane with 8 souls on board hit a drone during it approach (Lowrie 2017). Now Imagine if a drone had explosive on it and detonated, killing thousands of lives in the process, this is why drones can be a huge threat if proper layers of security are not in place.


   To combat this, TSA has partnered with the FAA and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created a layer of defense technology which can Detect, Track, and Identify (DTI) UAS's that are operating in any restricted air space, primarily airports. The DTI project will primarily consist of Thermal Imaging, Radar scanners and Artificial Intelligence to combat these imposing threats to aviation. (TSA 2021). My take on this is that there are more ways to create stricter rules for this such as the FAA mandating to have a tracker system installed, and drone manufacturers start developing and installing kill switches to drones when it is nearing a restricted zone. 

Thank you for your time on reading my blog about the growing threat of UAS in our skies when we fly.


-Ralph


References:

Lowrie, Morgan and Marquis, Fragasso (2017) Drone hits Skyjet Plane. The National Post. 
Retrieved from;

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/plane-sustained-minor-damage-after-hitting-drone-near-quebec-city-garneau

Transportation Security Administration (2021) TSA to test drone detection capabilities at LAX. Retrieved from;

https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/releases/2021/05/18/tsa-test-drone-detection-capabilities-lax



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