Enhancing drone compliance and safety
Introduction
BT uses drones in a variety of ways, transforming businesses and helping save lives. In the UK, BT’s drone solutions range from connectivity to flight management, detection to surveys services.
For BT, drones are:
Streamlining operations - from rapidly delivering medical supplies to performing inspections, drones reduce response times and minimise safety risks.
Improving operational efficiencies - cutting down labour and equipment costs while maximising customer resources.
Providing high-resolution, real-time imaging and precise data for farming analysis, infrastructure inspection and surveillance, for customers to make informed decisions and improve strategic planning.
Challenge
We were asked to support the development of BT Business’s uncrewed inspection operations, which was up against multiple challenges.
In the initial instance, the BT Business team required an external review of BT Compliance across multiple business streams, as part of ongoing risk management. They then needed the enhancement of their operational envelope by obtaining an Operational Authorisation (OA), to enable a suite of drone-related work:
Dropping of articles to allow safe cable laying operations
Reduced distance operations to enable low level inspections such as telecoms towards close to uninvolved persons
Increased altitude to facilitate line of sight and telecoms surveys in support of projects such as the Emergency Services Network
Solution
Our approach was thorough and spanned two key phases:
1. Operations Audit
This initial phase involved conducting an operational compliance audit across BT Business, testing compliance against both regulatory and internal requirements, by interviewing pilots and providing witness statements. Crucially, we were looking to identify any areas of non-compliance and provide an independent view of operational procedures and specific ‘pain points’, ultimately testing practical compliance with stated operating procedures.
2. Development of an initial Operational Risk Assessment (ORA)
Once phase one was complete, we moved on to developing the tailor-made OSC, with the aim of obtaining the required comprehensive Operational Authorisation (OA), allowing BT Business to conduct safe operations and maximising the utilisation of UAS across the business. Additionally, we oversaw training with the BT Business team to enable safe and compliant implementation of the new operational parameters and procedures.
The impact
For BT Business, our work provided assurance of operational compliance and safety, enhanced deployment feasibility and an increase of knowledge and competence relating to BVLOS Dock operations, enabling the ability to rapidly scale operations across the UK.
For wider business and society, this will mean better connectivity, improved infrastructure and services, and safer, more sustainable cities.
