1. Not If, When


Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) sUAS are fundamentally less reliable than manned aircraft because:


This creates a situation where components and systems fail at greater rates than what you'd see in manned aviation. sUAS during failure are dangerous. A 1lb DJI Mavic Air that sustains battery failure and falls from CAP's standard search altitude of 200ft AGL will pick up enough kinetic energy to kill someone 2½ times over if striking the skull.

2. The Four Components of Emergency Response


  1. Incident Title & Symptom(s) — Name the scenario that may be encountered and detail what may be included in the specific scenario.

  2. Pilot Response — Include immediate action required by the pilot to reduce risk to a point that’s as low as reasonably practical (ALARP). Structure points with the highest to the lowest priority.

  3. Crew Response — Detail the immediate action of the crew to reduce the risk to the lowest point possible. As above, structure points from highest to lowest importance.

  4. Post Incident Action — Detail the requirements following the incident, again with a high to low priority. This will usually include mishap reporting procedures.

3. Emergency Response