Blog

Considerations for the emerging threat of drones

Industry analysts Price Waterhouse Coopers recently suggested that the drone market is expected to be worth over $127billion within the next few years.  Whilst the majority of this will be for business applications, one major area of growth will be the consumer drone market with as many as 1 million new drones entering the airspace every month.

Within the sporting arena we have already seen;

• Drones crashing into spectators
• Drones delivering contentious objects into the arenas
• Drones being used to distribute leaflets
• Drone being used to deliver drugs

Whilst the threat of drones remains as an emerging consideration, it is vital that safety professionals consider strategies to observe and build practises to safeguard their respective organisations.  Whilst there are now a plethora of solution providers offering solutions, safety offices need to ensure they consider solutions that are legal and in line with current UK legislation. (Currently effecting based solutions such as Jammers and virtual fences are not permitted)

FSOA partner Dedrone believe that the first thing any safety officer needs to do is to understand ‘Do I have a problem?’.  This can be achieved by auditing your airspace and is a cost effective way to see whether drones pose a problem in your airspace.

Please consider this as a start of a new strategy and be aware that contrary to what you may be told by certain provides there is no miracle cure for this new threat as it will evolve over time.

To find out more, please feel free to contact Amit Samani (amit.samani@dedrone.com) for further information.