The number of detected “close encounters” between drones and crewed aircraft over European cities reached 3,833 encounters involving 2,149 drone flights in 2024 , according to the Eurocontrol Affordable Cooperative UAS Traffic Detection (ACUTE) project. This was more than double the 2023 figure of 1,743 encounters involving 928 flights.
The ACUTE programme findings are based on data from UAS detection antennas deployed in European cities to collect actual data on current UAS flights. An “encounter” corresponds to any situation where the 1 NM slant distance threshold between manned and unmanned aircraft has been breached, while the number of flights with encounters is the number of flights involving at least one encounter.
“During the years 2023 and 2024, we computed a total of 5 0567 encounters between drones and manned aircraft, involving 1 905 manned aircraft and 2 996 drones,” said the researchers in a new report. “These detections took place during a total of 561 days of installation of five antennas at 10 different sites, although not necessarily at the same time. We analysed the encounters at only 10 sites, as the other three sites did not have ADS-B antennas installed. “
In Figure 17, the researchers represented the evolution of traffic and encounters over these years. “We can see an increase in both the traffic and the encounters, but while traffic is seasonal, encounters are not, and do not necessarily increase in the summer,” said the research findings.
“The increase in traffic is, among others, a consequence of the installation of more antennas, especially in areas with higher traffic, which leads to more detections. However…the proportion of flights with encounters relative to the traffic has remained relatively stable over time.”
“Most of the encounters involve drones weighing less than 250 g….most of these drone pilots are likely to be non-professionals. Therefore, even if they are small in size and weight, these drones still pose a great danger to conventional aviation, especially if they are piloted by people who lack awareness and training….most encounters occur with drones from the DJI Mini series, which weigh less than 250 g and are mainly used by recreational operators. The second most involved category is DJI Mavic series, which are larger and heavier, although still weighing less than 1 kg, and are used for different purposes. Finally, the DJI Air 3 is in third place, as it shares similar characteristics with the Mavic series. Understanding which type of users are causing the encounters can help MS identify the profile of drone pilots who may need further training on safety measures and regulatory policies to reduce risks to conventional aviation.”
“From this result, we can infer that a great number of encounters happened with a non-commercial aviation and, therefore, this leads to the importance of raising awareness of the risk of encounters with helicopters, especially HEMS, that are the most common aircraft flying at low level over cities.”
For more information
https://image.smc.eurocontrol.int/lib/fec01575776c0375/m/1/625e8913-d0d8-4485-82ca-701b62f83971.pdf
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/eurocontrol_drones-eih-acute-activity-7336763891747594242-G05w/
(Image: Shutterstock)
