Presence of Drones near Changi Airport and Delays Caused to Flights

Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye asked the Minister for Transport whether he can provide an update on the investigation of the recent incidents of flight delays at Changi Airport due to the presence of illegal drones and what further measures will be taken to prevent such incidents in the future.

Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for Transport what are the measures put in place to ensure the prompt removal of drones that have intruded into restricted areas and their identification.

Mr Lim Biow Chuan asked the Minister for Transport whether the Ministry has ascertained the persons responsible for the flying of the unauthorised drones which resulted in flight delays and the shutting of a runway at Changi Airport on 18 June 2019 and what are the actions to be taken to prevent similar delays in the future.

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Transport with regard to the disruptions to flight operations at Changi Airport arising from unauthorised drones on 18, 19 and 24 June 2019 (a) whether the Government has identified the drones in question, the identity of their owners or operators and the reasons for their operation at the material time; and (b) what are the Government's plans to prevent or minimise further disruptions to airport operations from drone operations especially by unregistered or unidentified owners or operators.

Mr Desmond Choo asked the Minister for Transport in view of the latest incident involving unauthorised drones adversely affecting the operation of Changi Airport (a) whether the Ministry has completed its investigation into the incident; and (b) what are the measures taken to prevent future incidents.

Mr Ang Wei Neng asked the Minister for Transport how many drones have been detected in the recent two incidents involving unauthorised drones near Changi Airport and what is the outcome of the investigation thus far.

The recent drone intrusions are the first confirmed intrusions into Changi Airport that we have encountered. They disrupted airport operations and led to 55 flight delays and eight diversions over two nights on 18 and 24 June 2019. Although the impact of the recent drone intrusions has been moderate, these intrusions can have severe impact on airport operations. At Gatwick Airport, for example, drone intrusions shut down the entire airport for three days, affecting approximately 1,000 flights.

Police investigations into the drone intrusions are on-going. We have learnt from the experiences of other airports that identifying the perpetrators can be challenging and will take time.

Meanwhile, our priority is to detect the drones promptly and prevent them from affecting air traffic and endangering public safety. We have taken a multi-agency approach and deployed national resources towards ensuring the safety of Changi Airport operations.

The drone intrusions have caused some to suggest that we should ban the use of drones. There are many beneficial uses of drones. Besides commercial applications, such as drone deliveries and inspections, there are also many recreational users in Singapore. Our schools and Institutions of Higher Learning use drones to teach Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM), including robotics and programming. It is, therefore, important that we continue to take a balanced approach.

By and large, the community of drone enthusiasts fly their drones responsibly and are sensitive to the needs and concerns of other users that they share public space with in our crowded urban environment. Our laws governing the use of drones prohibit their use within 5 km of an aerodrome, unless a permit has been granted by CAAS. We have assessed this no-fly zone prohibition to be sufficient.

However, there will be a few selfish and irresponsible persons who operate in flagrant disregard of the law as well as the needs and concerns of others. We will, therefore, tighten the approach to regulating drone uses and dealing with errant drone users through the following measures.

First, we will introduce a mandatory registration regime for all drones operating in Singapore as well as a licensing framework for pilots of large or more capable drones. This will ensure that drone operators are made aware of their responsibilities and undertake to conduct their activities in a responsible manner.

Second, there will be stricter enforcement actions against errant drone operators. Last week, two persons who operated a drone close to an aerodrome were charged. This morning, a company pleaded guilty to a charge of operating a drone without a permit. The company was fined $9,000. Further, there is one other case being investigated for breaching the existing drone regulations. If convicted, they could face fines of up to $20,000. In conjunction with this, the Government is also looking into increasing the penalties for errant drone users.

As with other forms of new technology, finding the right balance in terms of regulations will take time, particularly since drone technology continues to evolve very quickly. This is why CAAS established the UAS Advisory Panel earlier this year to help review and recommend enhancements to the regulatory framework.

Meanwhile, we have strengthened our counter-drone capabilities at the airport. We stand ready to invest in and deploy additional capabilities to monitor and enforce the safety of our airspace.

I thank the Senior Minister of State for response. I am glad to hear that the Ministry is looking into compulsory registration of drones. I hope that this could be done sooner rather than later. So, can the Senior Minister of State provide an estimated timeline when drone registration may take place?

My second question is we need to go beyond registration. We know that some of this technology allows the operator to fly the drones beyond a certain distance. Given Singapore's small land space, this can even be operated outside of Singapore. I would like to ask if the Ministry has plans to put in place an unmanned aerial traffic management system to track all drones that are in operation within our airspace in real-time so that it can facilitate the authorities to go after any errant operators before it reaches within the high-risk areas, such as the airports.

I would like to thank the Member for those two supplementary questions. On the first query on the timeline for the mandatory registration, we have set up the UAS Advisory Panel in May 2019, who will be looking into some of these issues, including the suggestion to mandate the registration of UAS and we hope to be able to do so by the end of this year. We are urging the Advisory Panel to double up their efforts so that we can bring the timeline earlier.

As to the Member's suggestion of some form of central flight management system, I had in a previous parliamentary sitting announced that we are currently looking into this concept of a central flight management system, whereby registered UAS will be monitored for their activities and where they are operating. However, this is only useful for UAS operators who are cooperative. As for of UAS operators who are uncooperative, with the intention of performing malicious activities, relying on our existing sensors to pick up these illegal activities will be of the utmost importance.

Mr Speaker, may I follow up with a question on the drone intrusions? Do we have reason to believe that the recent intrusion at Changi Airport is done by foreigners, whether through foreign control? Because we have noted that in the vandalism case on an SMRT train at Bishan depot, the intruders were all foreigners?

I would like to share with Mr Ang that, currently, the incidents are being investigated by the Police. It will be too early to prejudge whether these are committed by foreigners or locals, or the profile of the perpetrators. So, I would urge Mr Ang to give us some time to complete the investigation before we are able to make the necessary announcements.

I would like to thank the Senior Minister of State. I have one supplementary question. We know that enforcement is not the easiest of tasks but it is a necessary step to ensure there are compliance and smooth operations. Is it possible for the Ministry to conduct active enforcement 24/7 like intercepting the drones at the boundary of the no-fly zone because it seems like it is a very tedious task? How will the Ministry go about it?

Picking up the activities of drones can be very challenging because the drones are basically quite small in size. Of course, the ideal situation will be to be able to detect the activities of drones on a 24/7 basis.

But having said that, I think we need to look at the modus operandi of these drone users. Like I have mentioned before, there are cooperative UAS users and in those cases, the central flight management system will be very useful in identifying exactly where these drone users are operating and the activities of these drones. Should there be situations where there are accidental intrusions into some of these restricted areas, the central flight management system will be able to quickly identify these users and inform them about the accidental intrusions.

However, we are now dealing with illegal, unauthorised malicious, deliberate activities by UAS users. In these cases, we need to have a risk-stratified approach where certain areas will be given priority in terms of assessing the activities and detecting where they are operating. One example will be near aerodromes such as Changi Airport area, where we will have the capability to detect as well as disrupt these activities in the shortest possible time.

I would like the Senior Minister of State, were there any geo-fencing solutions in place in Changi Airport by June 2019? If so, why were the existing geo-fencing solutions inadequate to prevent the disruptions in June? I would also like to ask the Senior Minister of State, in light of Minister Ng Eng Hen's comments last week, does CAAS or the Changi Airport Group intend to set up a specialist anti-drone unit to deal with drones?

I would like to thank the Member for those supplementary questions. In fact, he is correct to say that there are certain solutions like geo-fencing technology to disallow the operation of certain drones into restricted areas. However, this will only be possible, if the user is using a drone that is fitted with that kind of capability. For example, if the users were to use DJI drones, these will be equipped with geo-fencing capability where the drones will not be allowed to operate in certain restricted areas.

Unfortunately, in this particular case, we are of the assessment that such a capability has been disabled so that the geo-fencing solutions will not be capable of preventing these intrusions.

As to the Member's second question of the capabilities of CAAS and Changi Airport Group (CAG), MOT and CAAS are working with the various agencies to continue to tap on the security agencies' assets whenever possible or whenever necessary, without compromising their own operational needs. But in the medium term, CAAS and CAG will also be enhancing their own capability to detect and counter drones on an expedited basis. So, the answer in short is that CAG, together with CAAS, will have their own internal capabilities as soon as possible.

Earlier in January this year, a number of Members asked the same question as a result of what happened at Gatwick. The Senior Minister of State replied to say that we have counter measures to deal with safety and security threats posed by UAVs. So, looking at what has happened, it seems that such counter measures are inadequate. So, may I ask the Senior Minister of State, what other measures would MOT take to ensure that your measures are adequate to prevent a recurrence.

The second question I have for MOT is whether MOT has quantified the losses caused by the diversion of flights and the closure of the runway, and in the light of the massive inconvenience caused to travellers, whether the current maximum fine imposed is adequate. I am trying to say that we should set a stiff punishment to the perpetrators of these offences to make sure that everyone gets the signal that if you disrupt flights, if you cause runways to be closed, the punishment is stiff enough to make sure that everyone reconsiders what they are doing.

I would like to thank Mr Lim for those supplementary questions. Indeed, when I gave the reply in January this year, we did have the capability to detect and disrupt errant drone users. We have also taken a very coordinated approach in managing the current incident. In fact, after the incidents in Gatwick Airport, we have worked out the SOP and conducted table-top exercises to run through the operational plans so that we would be able to cope with similar incidents within our own airspace.

I would want to thank all the agencies that had been working day in, day out, 24/7 to manage the incidents that had happened at Changi Airport. As a result, I think we have been able to keep it under control. We have managed to keep disruption to the runway and airport operations to the minimum. I would also want to take this opportunity to remind all drone users that it is a very, very serious offence to operate unauthorised drones within 5 km of the airports or military bases, or at altitudes above 200 feet. Any errant operationers of drones will not only pose danger to aviation, but also to the personal safety of others. Anyone caught flouting this law will face a fine of up to $20,000 or a jail term of up to 12 months or both. We are currently looking at increasing the penalty framework for such offences.

What are the strategies that we have put in place to prevent similar occurrence? Well, I would say that our priority right now is to beef up our existing capabilities to detect these drone intrusions as quickly as possible, very promptly, and to ensure that our air traffic operations continue to function safely with minimal disruptions. At the same time, we will also put in place enhanced detection and disruption systems to be able to immobilise or prevent these drones from causing mayhem in the airspace as well as posing a danger to flights. At the same time, CAAS has also been judiciously managing the air traffic operations in Changi to ensure minimal disruptions to the flight operations. This can be done through risk-based approaches, in terms of planning for departures and arrivals.

These are some measures we are looking at. As I have replied to Mr Dennis Tan's questions, in addition to working with the other agencies, CAAS and CAG are also beefing up their own internal capabilities so that we will be able to manage these incidents more effectively.