Karen Cloney, air traffic controller at Dundee Airport for almost 23 years and GATCO member, has published her dissertation titled “Negligent or Malicious Piloting of Small Unmanned Aircraft: The Dangers Posed and the Methods of Mitigation/Prevention”, as part of the BSc in Air Traffic Management she is pursuing part-time at the University of the Highlands and Islands.
The dissertation presents an overview of the possible damage to aircraft wings caused by the impact of Small Unmanned Aircraft (SUA) and the potential damage to aircraft engines caused by the ingestion of one of those SUA. This work also investigated methods of identifying SUA in flight, to provide an overview of the interdiction systems available for deployment, explaining why the deployment of physical countermeasures within the commercial aviation environment is difficult.
Before Dundee Airport, Karen was an air traffic controller at City of Derry Airport and Perth/Scone Airport. In 2016, Karen was also involved in HIAL’s project to transition its corporate unit training plan to comply with Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/340. She is currently in the final year of her BSc(Hons).
You can download Karen’s dissertation here.