The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report finding the FAA has limited information on the extent of dangerous unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operations happening in the national airspace system. While the FAA collects reports of UAS operating in an unsafe manner, these reports are often incomplete and can be difficult to verify. The GAO interviewed 46 different aviation industry stakeholders to gather input on the report, including NAAA. Other entities interviewed include the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), the Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI), the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), Amazon Prime Air, Boeing, and university experts from Embrey Riddle Aeronautical University, University of North Dakota and Virginia Tech.  

The GAO found the FAA’s inability to perform effective oversight is due to its lack of reliable data and deficiencies in its risk management approach. The GAO recommended the FAA establish a mechanism to ensure that the FAA’s management of UAS safety risks follows all applicable requirements in the agency’s policies. This means better analyzing UAV safety risks in terms of severity (minimal to catastrophic) and likelihood (once per week to less than once every 30 years). The report found the FAA to be inconsistently analyzing the safety risks posed by UAVs and does not have consistent methods for determining what safety controls to implement.  

The report states “Improved risk management practices would help FAA determine whether additional actions are needed to ensure the safety of the national airspace and provide FAA and other decision-makers with confidence that FAA is focusing on the most critical safety risks posed by small UAS.” 

There are currently over 1 million UAVs registered with the FAA and there have been over 6,100 reported sightings of UAVs operating in an unsafe manner near airports or manned aircraft since 2014. The number of reported sightings increased five-fold from 2014 to 2015. Sightings increased another 51 percent in 2016 and 19 percent in 2017. A majority of these reports are made by pilots who submit statements to FAA’s air traffic control facilities, while some come from the general public or law enforcement officials. 

The GAO report found the FAA is working on improving its collection of data on UAV operations in the following ways:

• Identifying exactly what safety data needs to be collected on UAS accidents and incidents; 
• Developing a web-based reporting system for the public to report any sightings of a UAS that are a safety or privacy concern; 
• Developing a survey of UAS users to determine the number of UAS operations in the national airspace system and to obtain other information on UAS activity.