Canada's Drone Boom Is Giving Aviation Authorities a Headache

Like in the United States, Canada's regulatory agencies are struggling with what to do about the proliferation of drones. In fact, Transport Canada has noted at least 12 unsafe instances since 2011 involving Unmanned aerial vehicles, according to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act by Motherboard.

Besides detailing the difficulties regulating the sudden emergence of quadcopters, the documents also reveal a series of near misses with passenger and small manned aircraft.

Take for example a July 2013 incident where a WestJet pilot allegedly spotted a drone dangerously buzzing around his aircraft as he landed at a Vancouver airport. Or just before that, in May 2013, when a Cessna pilot flying out of Oshawa, Ontario saw a "red and white remote controlled airplane" fly 100 feet below him as he flew his plane.

Both incidents highlighted just how easy it is to fly your average quadcopter near a larger aircraft carrying human beings, a problem that Canadian airspace regulators hadn't seen prior to the emergence of cheap, ready-to-fly quadcopters.

Under current Canadian Aviation Regulations (CAR), anybody operating a model aircraft or drone weighing more than 35 kilograms for non-recreative purposes, has to obtain a Special Flight Operation Certificate (SFOC) from Transport Canada.

But that means that anything under 35 kilograms is fair game to be flown by hobbyists without many limitations or licenses, making it tough for the agency to track those unlicensed users.

But that hasn't stopped some drone operators from using their drones in ways the agency isn't cool with. One incident found in the Access documents details an incident in which an aerial photographer allegedly used his drone to take pictures of his neighbour sunbathing. To be fair, several of these "spying" incidents have been debunked in the United States over the last year or so, and these documents show only the government's side of things.

In the document, a Transport Canada official explained that the agency's hands were tied by the law: "I advised her there is nothing we can do," wrote the investigator, "this will have to be a police issue".

In seven out of 12 cases listed in the documents obtained by Motherboard, the drone pilots did not have a valid SFOC (though it's likely that most of the pilots wouldn't actually need one).

In those cases, the agency either dismissed the case or recommended "oral counseling." In the United States, meanwhile, the FAA often sends out cease-and-desist orders or hefty fines.

That's not to say that Transport Canada isn't concerned. The agency desperately tried to track down a drone operator who flew his aircraft too close to an Air Canada plane landing at Vancouver International Airport in March 2013.

"The crew of AC008 estimated that the RC help came within 100 feet of their aircraft and that it was such a size that their initial reaction was that it was a real," the Transport Canada investigator wrote.

RCMP officers were dispatched to the scene, but weren't able to locate the drone pilot. Nav Canada, a not-for-profit corporation in charge of managing Canada's civilian airspace, wasn't able to find any leads on the operator, either.

That led a Transport Canada investigator to ask for information about the event on a radio-controlled airplane forum.

That incident prompted Transport Canada to change its approach policing personal UAVs.

"As I understand it, the new protocol is to treat these like laser attacks and dispatch the RCMP immediately," the investigator continued, noting it would be difficult to find the culprit in the future.

The RCMP has since identified the individual responsible for the March 2013 incident, according to the Richmond, British Columbia, RCMP detachment. That's probably thanks to a video the alleged pilot uploaded to Youtube. Even so, the operator has yet to be interviewed and no charges have been filed.

"What people are not understanding is that, just because (the drone) is not in the flight path, that doesn't mean there aren't other aircrafts operating in the airspace," Sgt. Cam Kowalski, an officer with the Richmond RCMP Department, told me. "It wasn't a problem until very recently… but (drones) are becoming very cheap and powerful."

And because the drones are small and fly relatively low, they're not picked up by Nav Canada's radars. Most are also not equipped with transponders, the device used by planes to signal to each other, and to ground station, its location and altitude.

Despite facing problems tracking drones, Transport Canada is staying ahead of the curve says Trevor Bergmann, president of the Halifax-based aerial photo company AeroVision.

"They're far ahead from where the US is in terms of, FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) regulations," especially when it comes to doling out commercial drone licenses, he said in an interview with Motherboard.

The FAA has drastically restricted the use of drones for commercial purposes. Last month, drone enthusiasts even started fighting the FAA rules, calling them "at best ill-conceived and at worst intentionally punitive and retaliatory."

Bergmann contacted Transport Canada last March, complaining about other small businesses in the Halifax area that were operating without an SFOC.

"There seems to be a growing misconception and some very creative views on the regulations in this market," he wrote in his complaint to the feds. According to Bergmann, there are drone operators out there, using aircraft for non-recreational purposes, a clear violation of the CAR, if they don't possess adequate licensing, regardless of drone size.

With an ever expanding drone market, some models set to be the size of hummingbirds, there's not much the Canadian feds can do but crackdown on users they catch in the act. In other words, they'll continue prowling YouTube drone videos and scouting online chat forums for informants.