Tag Archives: Airplanes

U.S. must prevent air accidents involving drones, lawmaker warns

FILE PHOTO: An airplane takes off at Gatwick Airport, after the airport reopened to flights following its forced closure because of drone activity, in Gatwick, Britain, December 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The commercial drone industry could be torpedoed if there were a serious accident involving a drone and a commercial aircraft, the chairman of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee warned on Friday.

Representative Peter DeFazio, a Democrat, said at a speech in Washington that regulators had to take the threat seriously.

“This is really serious when these things are flying around and it could kill the commercial drone industry,” DeFazio said, adding that if a toy drone “takes down a plane” there would be a public outcry to ground the devices.

The issue of threats by drones to commercial air traffic came to the fore after London’s second busiest airport, Gatwick Airport, was severely disrupted in December when drones were sighted on three consecutive days.

Last month, 43 flights into New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport were required to hold after drone sightings at a nearby airport, while nine flights were diverted.

In January, U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao proposed rules that would allow drones to operate over populated areas help speed their commercial use.

There are nearly 1.3 million registered drones in the United States and more than 116,000 registered drone operators. Officials say there are hundreds of thousands of additional drones that are not registered.

DeFazio added the government should also facilitate the growth of the drone industry because the benefits are “potentially phenomenal.”

“We’re worried about the 2 million people who bought or got toy drones for Christmas the last couple of years who are regularly flying in violation of the law,” DeFazio said.

Last week, the FBI said authorities confiscated six drones that violated a temporary order not to fly the devices in the area ahead of the NFL’s Super Bowl.

Alphabet Inc and Amazon.com Inc are among a growing number of companies hoping to make package delivery by drones a reality.

The Federal Aviation Administration is also working on rules to set remote identification requirements for drones for tracking them.

The FAA noted last month that some drones can fly at 10,000 feet or more and accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than one second and is assessing “possible performance limitations, such as airspeed and altitude, to mitigate potential hazards.”

Congress last year gave the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security new powers to disable or destroy threatening drones after officials raised concerns about the use of drones as potential weapons.

“We’re not certain yet what the best technology is,” DeFazio said. “We’ve got to get a handle on those who are operating improperly and then we also have to facilitate the growth of the (commercial drone) industry itself, because the benefits are potentially phenomenal.”

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio)

U.S. carriers see 3.5 percent bump in 2016 winter holiday flying

By Alana Wise

(Reuters) – More than 45 million passengers will take to the skies on U.S. airlines this holiday season, Airlines for America projected on Thursday, up 3.5 percent from holiday travel last year.

During the 21-day stretch from Dec. 16 through Jan. 5, between 1.8 million and 2.4 million passengers daily will fly globally aboard U.S. carriers, according to the Washington-based trade group.

“An improving economy and reduced airfares remain the driving force behind the growth seen in air travel,” Airlines for America Chief Economist John Heimlich said in a statement.

“As we saw over Thanksgiving, U.S. airlines are well positioned to handle the increase in passengers expected this holiday season,” he added.

U.S. carriers got a trial run at the upcoming travel rush during the 12 days of Thanksgiving travel, the trade group said.

During Thanksgiving travel, airlines had a completion factor of 99.4 percent, a percentage of flights an airline completes without cancellation, and an on-time arrival rate of 84.5 percent, the industry body said.

Airlines for America said it expects the most congested travel days to fall on Dec. 22 and Dec. 23, while fewer travelers are expected on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

(Reporting by Alana Wise; Additional reporting by Jeffrey Dastin; Editing by Alan Crosby)

Hackers Could Bring Down Planes Using Wi-Fi

A shocking new report from the General Accounting Office (GAO) says that terrorist hackers could use the on-board Wi-Fi of an airplane to take control and bring it down.

The GAO report doesn’t suggest it would be easy for the hackers to bring down the places but that they could do it through the current Wi-Fi technology.  The report says the “worst case scenario” would be a terrorist on a plane with a laptop.  The terrorist could use the on-board Wi-Fi to take control of the plane from their seat.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee said that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) needs to work quickly to solve this deficiency in airline security.

“According to cybersecurity experts we interviewed, Internet connectivity in the cabin should be considered a direct link between the aircraft and the outside world, which includes potential malicious actors,” the report states.

The report follows a separate GAO report that determined the FAA’s system for building planes was at “increased and unnecessary risk” for being hacked.