The Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Transportation has some recommendations for the FAA’s strategy in regulating unmanned aircraft vehicles. The OIG recently released an audit report after receiving feedback from the FAA prior to release.
The OIG offered six recommendations to the FAA:
(1). Establish specific milestones to update and maintain UAS guidance to keep pace with technological developments and incorporate inspector feedback.
(2). Develop comprehensive and updated training for safety inspectors on UAS technologies and Agency rules and guidance related to UAS oversight.
(3.) Initiate a periodic process to perform inspections of commercial UAS operators based on operational factors to verify knowledge of and compliance with FAA requirements and to inform the development of a risk-based oversight plan.
(4). Design and implement a risk-based and prioritized oversight plan for UAS to help ensure safe operations of UAS.
(5). Develop and implement a process to coordinate existing disparate UAS databases within FAA to facilitate data mining and safety analysis.
(6). Implement a process to share UAS data with field oversight offices to assist inspectors in risk-based and proactive oversight of civil UAS operations.
After given a chance to review the report before the OIG released it, the FAA said that recommendations one through four could be closed due to updates or changes already made by the FAA that would fulfill the requirements made by the OIG.
Although the OIG said recommendations one through four could be closed, they are requesting additional information before doing so. And, for recommendations five and six, the FAA has provided what the OIG believes is a set of appropriate planned actions and completion dates for each.
The review took place in October. The full review can be found here.
Source: UAS Magazine