Drones in Disaster: Why Coordination Saves Lives

Communication, cooperation keys to successful drone disaster response

by DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill

As unmanned aircraft are increasingly used as tools in response to natural disasters, there is a growing need for better communication and cooperation among federal and state and local emergency responders, private company volunteers, casual drone pilots and the public at large.

Several speakers at the recent Energy Drones + Robotics Summit in The Woodlands, Texas stressed the importance of following FAA rules, as well as the directions of local “air bosses” on the scene of a disaster, such as a hurricane, flood or wildfire.

Aaron Fritch, a captain with the Texas Department of Public Safety, highlighted the importance of coordination among public safety agencies in responding to a natural disaster or massive public gathering.

“We can have 10 agencies show up to a disaster or any other event, and if they’re all using the same software platform, it doesn’t matter which drone they’re using,” he said. The use of a single software helps the various agencies see what drones are in the air, and allows them to communicate with one another in a coordinated response.

Fritch pointed to the high levels of coordination among the various agencies tasked with keeping an eye of the recent series of “No Kings” protests, which took place in cities across the country.

An increasing problem for airborne emergency teams is the presence in the air space of drones being operated by individuals not associated with the disaster response team,

In a recent example of the possible consequences of such irresponsible action, in January a California man crashed his drone into a Canadian “super scooper” plane dispatched to fight the devastating Palisades Fire, grounding the plane for several days. The drone pilot pleaded guilty to one count of unsafe operation of an unmanned aircraft.

In the Lone Star State, Fritch said emergency response teams encountered incidents of rouge drone operators interfering with the official response to Hurricane Beryl, which struck the Texas Gulf Coast last July. He said that such irresponsible UAV operators represent a danger to all emergency response personnel.

“They don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t know how to safely maneuvered up there. They don’t know how to communicate and how to keep an eye on that air space. And then we have an incident where we put a drone into a helicopter or an airplane or something of that nature.”

It is critically important for private drone operators to pay attention to FAA temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) and other regulations when considering whether it’s a good idea to fly near a disaster site.

“It’s not just about following the law, it’s about the objective of the law and that is to keep it safe, keep it fair,” he said.

Clueless and careless drone pilots present a danger

John Kitto, a ground-based officer with the Federal Air Marshal Service, said incidents involving “careless or clueless” drone operators flying in a way that could potentially impact manned aviation is becoming a growing problem.

“We get hits all the time. There’s no way we can catch them all,” he said.

Kitto said most of the service’s mitigation efforts in dealing with such drone incursions into protected airspace involve finding the drone pilot and instructing them to bring their UAV down.

A wide range of federal laws limit the ability of most public safety agencies to mitigate the potential threat posed by drone incursions. Kitto said the most successful counter-UAS efforts involve a layered approach, involving such tools as radar detection equipment, jamming technology and soft-cyber takeovers.

“I haven’t seen any foolproof anything,” he said. “It’s all hit or miss.”

Robert Dooley, UAS coordinator for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, said it’s important for public safety agencies to build relationships, not only with other similar agencies, but also with nearby private sector entities that could be affected by a natural disaster.

“Get to know who they are and exchange information,” he said.

First responders can provide priceless information and support to such private entities in the event of a disaster such as a hurricane, he said.

“I can’t tell you how many times these multi-billion-dollar companies have resources on the way, but they’re stuck. Well, I’m not stuck. I’m already there because I have to go there and sleep in my car and pray when the hurricane passed over,” Dooley said.

“We’re already there and they know that. And then they call upon us and say, ‘Hey, can you get eyes on this oil dump or whatever?’” he said. The first responders will then fly over the disaster scene and look for the rainbow sheen on the ground that indicate the leak of some petroleum product. “We’ll see if it’s leaking or if we have any issues and we’ll report that data back.”

Dooley said that during disaster events public safety agencies should use their resulting access to the media to educate the public about the proper role of the first responders and of the public at large to those events.

“When responding to something that’s national headlines, get in front of them, and say, “Hey, this is what we’re doing, please don’t interfere. We want to get back to normal.”

Private sector, public each has role to play in disasters

Brandon Karr, director of customer service for DroneSense, said the private sector is beginning to take a more proactive role in supporting public safety agencies’ UAS operations.

“We are starting to see more and more housing developments actually build out DFR [drones as first responders] programs and then offer those docks, those services to police agencies,” he said. He said such projects have been begun in three locations in the U.S. “It’s actually the private sector owning the hardware.”

Several conference speakers stressed the need to get community buy-in to support public safety agencies’ drone programs, both during times of disaster response, as well as the rest of the time for normal UAV operations.

Andy Jaques, AIRT deputy director, recommended that public service agencies hold regular community events to encourage members of the public to see for themselves what a drone operation is all about. “We have invited the community out; we invited the school out for their STEM program and brought everybody out to our training facility and just did a whole day out there,” he said.

Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.