The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (ESAS) has published its Annual Safety Review (ASR) that provides an overview of aviation safety in Europe in 2024 and compares the results with the previous 10 years. It analyses accidents and serious incidents across all aviation domains, including uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) and their impact with people on the ground, and serves as a key input to the European Plan for Aviation Safety.
It is notable that there were no fatal accidents or serious injuries involving UAS in 2024.
EASA also monitors the number of occurrences by UAS in which manned aviation was involved. In the year 2024 the domain recorded seven such occurrences. These seven occurrences were one accident and six serious incidents.
“The accident involved a collision between a small UAS (250gr) and a small, non-certified aircraft over a lake in Switzerland at ca. 100 m AGL,” according to the ASR. “The aircraft sustained minor damage and was able to continue its flight. The six serious incidents occurred in Austria (two), Germany (one), the Netherlands (two) and Switzerland (one) and represented five Airprox and one Loss of control-in flight events. The manned aircraft involved in these occurrences were A320, A321, A340, one Robinson helicopter (R44) and one Bombardier (BD500), as well as one non-power sailplane glider. In all cases the size and the origin of the UAS encountered remained unknown or was not coded in the occurrence report.”
EASA says that continued occurrence reporting underlines the importance of safe integration of this developing domain of the industry into the wider airspace.
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