Application of New Zealand
Introduction
There has been rapid growth in the availability and use of small-scale drones1 in recent years, driven by the private benefits available to the drone operator. For a recreational operator the motivation may be enjoyment, but for the commercial operator there is the ability to gather information at lower cost and lower risk than previously possible, and potentially to gather information that could not previously be gathered in a cost-effective manner. Drones also give rise to a number of costs, most notably safety-related and privacy-related, which by their nature are borne by third parties. A mechanism is required for the drone operator to internalise these costs if efficient use of drones is to be achieved.
The proliferation in drone availability and use has been reflected in the number of incidents and concerns reported to the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority. Authority statistics indicate that from 2008 to 2010 there was approximately one report per year notified to the authority. This has grown to 120 reports for the 2015 calendar year.2 Commercial uses for drones include infrastructure inspection, surveying, general aerial photography, precision agriculture, search and rescue, and delivery services. One New Zealand study (Shelley and Andrews, 2015) estimates the potential gross benefits to be, in monetary terms: nearly $1 billion per annum from improved pasture management on sheep, beef and dairy farms; up to $95 million per annum from improved control of a common radiata pine fungus and an insect pest; and up to $7 million per annum from electricity infrastructure asset inspection, with a
further benefit of up to $20 million per annum from reduced duration of power outages. Benefits not quantifiable include the ability to conduct real-time traffic monitoring (sUAS News, 2015) and activities such natural disaster response (Measure and American Red Cross, 2015).
While not common occurrences, small drones have injured people, including hitting and cutting a triathlete’s head during a race (Grubb, 2014), knocking a woman unconscious at a public parade (CBS News, 2015) and injuring a baby at a public event (Henry 2015). Small drones have been used to deliver contraband to prisons in both the United Kingdom and the United States (Brandes, 2015; Glanfield, 2015); have crashed into overhead electricity lines, causing power cuts, in both New Zealand and the United States (Dinsdale, 2015; Serna, 2015); and crashed at major sporting events (Waldstein, 2015). There are concerns that small drones could be used by terrorist groups to launch bomb attacks (Hughes, 2015). Drones have been used to conduct numerous unauthorised flights over French nuclear power plants, raising speculation about whether the flights are a precursor to ground-based attack (Lichfield, 2014; Baylon, 2014). Following reports that small drones have come within feet of passenger planes
Andrew Shelley is a master’s student in the School of Economics and Finance at Victoria University of Wellington, and a director of Aviation Safety Management Systems Ltd.
Privacy Law
to Drones
Andrew V. Shelley
20 sUAS Guide / Q3 Update, October 2016