The flight environment: obstacles, people, light
The safety of a flight is decided on the ground, by looking around you. The regulation frames it as an obligation to check, and EASA details what to look for: a list the examination reproduces almost as it stands.
Key points
- Point UAS.OPEN.060(1)(c) requires the remote pilot to observe the operating environment, check the presence of obstacles and check the presence of any uninvolved person.
- AMC1 UAS.OPEN.060(1)(c) lists what you note: the position of people, of property, of vehicles, of roads open to traffic, of obstacles, of aerodromes and of critical infrastructure. It adds that you should, where possible, walk the intended area.
- The same AMC asks you to be familiar with the light conditions and to make a reasonable effort to identify sources of electromagnetic energy liable to interfere with or damage the UAS equipment.
- For a person crossing the area in A3, AMC1 UAS.OPEN.040(1) proposes three cumulative floors: 30 metres, the flight height (the 1-to-1 rule), and the distance covered in 2 seconds at maximum speed. The highest of the three governs.
- Those three floors are a means of compliance, not an article: the hard-law rule is point UAS.OPEN.040(1), which requires that no uninvolved person be endangered within the range where the aircraft is flown during the entire time of the operation.
- A person's status is built: the operator ensures that all those participating have been informed of the risks and have explicitly agreed to participate (UAS.OPEN.050(7)). An unbriefed companion remains an uninvolved person (Art. 2(18)).
- An assembly of people is defined by a density that prevents people from moving away, never by a headcount (Art. 2(3)), and overflying one is prohibited throughout the ‘open’ category (Art. 4(1)(c)).
- The flight is discontinued as soon as it poses a risk to other aircraft, people, animals, the environment or property (UAS.OPEN.060(2)(b)). Animals and the environment are indeed on the list.
The trap. Satellite imagery is always dated. A crane erected last week, a new power line, a recent housing estate do not appear on it, and overhead cables are precisely what can be seen neither from the screen nor from the ground a hundred metres away. That is what the walk-through goes looking for.
A diagram goes with this card: see it in the We Drone app.
Source
Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/947 (CELEX 02019R0947, consolidated on 01/05/2025), art. 2, points 3) and 18), art. 4, paragraph 1, point c), and Annex Part A, points UAS.OPEN.040(1), UAS.OPEN.050(7), UAS.OPEN.060(1)(c) and UAS.OPEN.060(2)(b); AMC1 UAS.OPEN.040(1) and AMC1 UAS.OPEN.060(1)(c) (ED Decision 2019/021/R)