The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has taken many steps to advance the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the United States, but it has not established a risk-based approach to UAS oversight, according to an audit report by the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). Such a risk-based approach would enable FAA to “most effectively identify and mitigate UAS safety risk,” the recently released OIG report said.
“Such an approach will require sufficient guidance and training for inspectors, establishing the capacity for integrated data and analysis, and some means to verify and evaluate UAS operators compliance beyond responding to reported incidents,” according to the report’s conclusion. “Unless FAA can adopt a more proactive approach to civil UAS oversight, the agency canno…
