Risk Management Magazine

Several winters ago, I crashed my car into a guardrail on a desolate strip of road in northern New York. I am not proud of my actions leading up to that day. This accident could have been prevented, however, with my integrity and leader involvement.  

Unmanned aircraft systems have many built-in procedural safety checks similar to manned aviation, such as system limitations, environmental factors and airspace deconfliction methods. These procedures are in place to ensure the safety of the aircraft and aircrew operating in the same area of operations.

It was a fairly straight-forward, routine mission. Weather for the time of flight was forecast as visual flight rules with the possibility of light snow showers en route. Everything indicated it was a good day to fly.