At a recent Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) Air Safety Forum in Washington, D.C., Richard Prosek, manager of flight technologies and procedures in FAA’s UAS Integration Office, offered airline pilots assurances that air vehicles piloted from the ground will be introduced safely and incrementally to the U.S. national airspace system (NAS)… “We’re doing this in an organized and structured fashion.”
The FAA reauthorization bill signed into law in February sets a deadline for the integration of unmanned aircraft in the NAS “as soon as practicable, but not later than September 30, 2015.” Mr. Prosek sought to clarify the bill language by saying, “The language does not say full integration of UASs into the NAS by that date. It says safe integration.”
American Eagle Capt. Bill de Groh, chairman of ALPA’s design and operations group expressed ALPA’s position that “persons controlling the unmanned aircraft be pilots, not operators”, and said, “Our view is that to be granted equal access to the NAS, the pilot-in-command must be trained and licensed to do so.”
Rich Hanson
AMA Government and Regulatory Affairs
Click the link below to read the complete report in Aviation International News, AINonline…
Airline Pilots Assured of Safe Introduction of UAS