Plans to prepare a response for the appearance of unauthorized drones near the airport

Drones are also expected to be utilized in naval aviation fields, such as airport facility management and bird control.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Incheon International Airport Corporation announced that they will prepare and promote plans to utilize drones in six aviation operations: navigation facility inspection, bird control, airport perimeter security, management of obstacle limitation surfaces, management of aviation obstruction lights, and drone countermeasures.

Due to the nature of navigation safety systems, which use radio waves to emit signals into the air, there were limitations to humans measuring radio waves on the ground to perform inspections.

Taking this into account, Korea Airports Corporation developed three receivers equipped with measuring instruments and software capable of analyzing navigation safety system signals for the first time on commercial drones starting in 2016, and after conducting installation tests, completed pilot operations at 13 locations nationwide, including Ulsan Airport, by 2017.

Advanced drones equipped with navigation safety system radio wave measurement receivers perform the role of detecting and analyzing radio wave impacts on obstacles in airport approach zones in advance, in addition to routine inspections; they have also been deployed in the event of actual aeronautical radio beacon system failures to detect abnormal signals and play a decisive role in rapid recovery.

Inspection methods for navigation safety systems using drones are currently in the testing and development phase in select countries such as Korea and Germany. In the future, they will be utilized in various ways, including the development of intelligent drones capable of autonomous flight inspections, the tracking and elimination of harmful radio waves that interfere with aviation frequencies, and radio impact analysis for selecting optimal airport candidate sites.I plan to use it.

Pilot projects for the introduction of drones for airport perimeter security and bird control are planned to be implemented in stages at Incheon Airport and other locations.

Incheon International Airport Corporation plans to introduce bird control and perimeter security drones after ensuring safety by having them undergo airframe safety inspections by the Korea Institute of Aviation Safety Technology and obtaining approval from the Seoul Regional Aviation Administration, the competent regional aviation authority, prior to flight.

Incheon Airport plans to carry out bird control operations by operating drones at an altitude of 35m or less in the northern seawall area, a bird habitat located 3km outside the control zone, and plans to conduct a pilot operation of security drones in the outer fence section of the free trade zone.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Airports Corporation plan to review measures to utilize drones for surveying aviation obstacles.

Obstruction lights are lights kept on to help pilots recognize obstacles, such as high-rise buildings; due to their nature, they are often installed at high altitudes, which limits the scope of ground-based inspections. Utilizing drones allows for checking the flashing cycle of obstruction lights, verifying their cleanliness and damage, and is useful for inspecting the lights' visibility from an aircraft's perspective.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to devise measures to respond to the appearance of unauthorized drones near airports by introducing a drone detection system following consultations with relevant agencies.