Drone Scare Near New York City Shows Hazard Posed to Air Travel

A reported sighting of a drone near Newark Liberty International Airport on Tuesday halted operations at the airport.CreditSeth Wenig/Associated Press

A reported sighting of a drone near Newark Liberty International Airport on Tuesday halted operations at the airport.CreditCreditSeth Wenig/Associated Press

One of the busiest airports in the country was closed to arriving flights on Tuesday evening by reports of a drone flying nearby, showing how a single electronic toy could wreak havoc on an air-travel system already lagging in adopting technology to protect the skies.

Newark Liberty International Airport, one of three main airports that serve New York City, halted all landings and diverted planes for more than an hour after two pilots on different planes spotted a drone nearby as they came in for landings. Law enforcement agencies were still investigating the sightings, but so far no drone has been located, a federal aviation official said on Wednesday.

The disruption was all the more alarming because it came just one month after reported drone sightings caused the shutdown of Gatwick Airport in London, one of the busiest in Europe.

The upheaval at Newark illustrated how vulnerable the air-travel system is to the proliferation of inexpensive drones that can weigh as much as 50 pounds and are capable of flying high and fast enough to get in the path of commercial jets, experts on aviation safety and drone technology said. It also raised questions about whether airports are prepared enough to identify drones and prevent them from paralyzing travel and leaving passengers stranded.

Related image

“This is a really disturbing trend,” said John Halinski, former deputy administrator of the federal Transportation Security Administration. “It is a real problem because drones are multiplying every day. They really pose a threat in a number of ways to civil aviation.”

Pilots fear drones because tests have proved that they can cause the “takedown of an aircraft,” Mr. Halinski said. Although technology exists that can detect and deter drones, it is not used at most major airports, he said. “I can’t think of a major airport with anti-drone type of capability,” he said.

A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark Liberty as well as Kennedy International and La Guardia Airports, declined, “for security reasons,” to discuss how the airports cope with drones. In a statement, the Port Authority said: “the presence of drone activity near major airports is a serious threat to public safety and can cause significant disruption to flight operations, impacting thousands of passengers.”

The agency said it was committed to keeping its airports “at the forefront of protection and technology.” Last week, the Port Authority said it held a meeting with local, state and federal agencies “to review and enhance protocols for the rapid detection and interdiction of drones.”

At Gatwick, the drone sightings led to the grounding or diversion of more than 1,000 flights over three days, affecting more than 140,000 passengers in Britain. London’s Heathrow Airport was shut down briefly this month after a reported drone sighting. Neither episode resulted in any damages or charges.

Drone operators, both recreational and commercial, are required to register with the Federal Aviation Administration if their aircraft weigh more than about half a pound. More than 1.2 million drones have now been registered, according to the F.A.A.

Regulations bar drones from flying more than 400 feet above the ground, though hobbyists and companies can apply for a waiver to fly higher. The F.A.A. has granted just 20 of those waivers.

Operators must also seek permission from air traffic controllers to fly within five miles of an airport, or they risk possible criminal punishment. In the New York area, the restricted airspace is expansive and complicated, with the three main airports and one serving private aircraft — Teterboro Airport — all within several miles of Manhattan. The pilots that spotted the drone on Tuesday were flying over Teterboro at the time.

Besides the fear of a drone being sucked into a jet’s engine, there are concerns about other ways a drone — known in aviation circles as an unmanned aircraft system, or UAS — could cause damage or distract a pilot.

A study from the Alliance for System Safety of UAS Through Research Excellence, which was conducted in concert with the F.A.A., showed that batteries that power small drones could cause fires in collisions with commercial aircraft.

“The damage could be severe,” said Gerardo Olivares, a researcher at Wichita State University who helped conduct the study.

Until now, the F.A.A. and other regulators have been concerned that the technology to keep drones away from airports could interfere with radar and air-traffic control systems. But last fall, President Trump signed legislation that authorized the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice to develop measures to counter the use of drones. (The departments of defense and energy already had that authorization.)

Proponents of the use of drones say technology exists to keep drones away from airports and other facilities, like prisons and sports stadiums. But so far, it can be used only for detection, not deterrence, they say.

“The only thing we can do is detect the drone,” said James Barnes, founder of the Drone Academy, a training center in Ringoes, N.J. Mr. Barnes said federal regulators barred the use of the technology to block drones from flying over a particular area, to force a drone to the ground or to trace it back to its operator.

Adam Bry, chief executive and founder of the drone company Skydio, who previously worked on drones at Google, said that regulation alone could not properly control the danger that drones posed at airports. “Ultimately, the best solutions are going to be technology based,” he said. “No matter what rules you have, it is very, very difficult to deal with bad actors unless you have the ability to monitor the airspace and take action.”

The drone sighting illustrates how vulnerable the air-travel system is to the proliferation of inexpensive drones. CreditMatt Dunham/Associated Press

Start-ups such as SkySafe and AirMap are exploring technologies that identify drones, jam their radio signals or ground them in other ways. SkySafe, founded by a former Air Force officer, has been working on drone tracking and signal jamming technology for about three years and is now supplying its technology to the Navy. It is in discussions with airports, stadium operators and other commercial companies.

But unless they are working with the government, these companies do not yet have the legal authority to interfere with drone flight, said Jonathan Rupprecht, a Florida-based lawyer who specializes in drones.

Following air-traffic disruptions caused by drones, many people wonder why the police do not simply shoot down offending drones. Adam Lisberg, a spokesman for DJI Technology, a drone maker, said such action is generally prohibited.

“It is right now illegal in most cases to interfere with a drone in flight,” Mr. Lisberg said. “Drones are considered aircraft.”

Mr. Lisberg joined others in the pro-drone crowd in expressing doubts about the reported sightings on Tuesday. He said it was “extremely unlikely” that somebody flying a plane at about 250 miles an hour spotted a small drone just as the sun was setting.

But Mr. Barnes said he found the reports plausible because some hobbyists “think they want to fly with the big boys.” He said that several years ago he sent a drone from Flemington, N.J., across the state to the Jersey Shore, where it circled The Stone Pony bar in Asbury Park twice before returning. All the while, he said, the drone flew 5,000 to 10,000 feet off the ground.

Nowadays, he said, he stays under the F.A.A.’s 400-foot ceiling even while operating missions for police departments and other government agencies. Among his current assignments, he said, is counting deer for the New Jersey Farm Bureau.