Preventing Disruptions at Changi Airport Caused by Drones
Ministry of TransportSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the vulnerability of Changi Airport to drone disruptions and the government's protective measures to ensure continuous aviation safety. Members of Parliament Ms Foo Mee Har, Mr Darryl David, Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong, and Mr Lim Biow Chuan questioned the airport's security protocols and enforcement capabilities. Senior Minister of State for Transport Dr Lam Pin Min responded that drones are prohibited within five kilometres of airports and are monitored via regular surveillance patrols. He highlighted the development of a centralized flight management system for tracking and the use of classified technologies to neutralize rogue drones. These multi-agency efforts, involving MINDEF and MHA, focus on detecting and disabling unauthorized aircraft to prevent any impact on flight operations.
Transcript
22 Ms Foo Mee Har asked the Minister for Transport whether Changi Airport is vulnerable to disruptions caused by drones similar to those at London's Gatwick Airport and, if so, to what extent.
23 Mr Darryl David asked the Minister for Transport what measures does the Government have against drones or other unmanned aerial devices that may disrupt flight operations in and around airports in Singapore.
24 Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Transport what measures are in place to prevent or stop drones from operating in the vicinity of our airports and affecting flight operations and schedules.
25 Mr Lim Biow Chuan asked the Minister for Transport what are the measures to ensure that flying drones do not disrupt the air traffic around Changi Airport.
The Senior Minister of State for Transport (Dr Lam Pin Min) (for the Minister for Transport): Mr Speaker, may I have your permission to take Question Nos 22 to 25 together, please?
Mr Speaker: You may. Please proceed.
Dr Lam Pin Min: Mr Speaker, we encourage safe and responsible use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) because of their potential benefits. At the same time, we recognise the need to address safety and security concerns that could arise from errant and irresponsible use of UAS.
UAS are prohibited from flying within 5 km of any airport in Singapore without a permit. Law enforcement officers also conduct regular surveillance patrols around the airport and respond to sightings of unauthorised UAS. Over the past three years, there were eight reports of unauthorised UAS within five kilometres of Changi Airport. None of these cases involved intrusions into Changi Airport.
We have counter-measures to deal with safety and security threats posed by UAS. These efforts are coordinated with MINDEF and MHA. However, due to security considerations, it would not be appropriate for me to go into the details. We will continue to monitor developments globally and collaborate with foreign counterparts and industry partners to study and implement additional measures when required.
Ms Foo Mee Har (West Coast): Mr Speaker, I thank the Senior Minister of State for his response. Learning from the Gatwick Airport incident, I think there were two issues, and I would like to pose two supplementary questions.
Firstly, how can perpetrators be easily identified? Secondly, what anti-drone technology can the authorities deploy to track the drone signals? And how can they disrupt the operation of rogue drones?
Dr Lam Pin Min: I would like to thank Ms Foo for those supplementary questions. They are very pertinent to the safety and the security of our aerodromes. First of all, I would like to state that the enforcement agencies have been building up our capability to counter-safety and security threats posed by UAS. This includes the ability to detect and identify UAS to locate its operator as well as the capability to take down the aircraft safely. To enforce the restriction of flying of UAS, CAAS has engaged the auxiliary police to conduct regular surveillance patrols around Changi as well as Seletar airports. And of course auxiliary police officers would also be activated to respond if air traffic controller or pilots of aircraft report sightings of such activities.
With regard to the Member's supplementary question on the efforts to neutralise rogue UAS, I think CAAS' approach is to consider both cooperative as well as uncooperative UAS. For cooperative UAS, we intend to develop a centralised flight management system that will actually provide an island-wide situational picture of UAS activities through tracking solutions, and this will allow us to zoom in on individual UAS, check if they are operating under valid permits, as well as to issue alerts to operators if they are found to be contravening regulations.
As for uncooperative UAS, CAAS actually collaborates with CAG, DSTA, MINDEF as well as MHA to neutralise either by forcing-down or destroying rogue UAS swiftly, but such counter UAS technology or solutions are classified and for security reasons, I am afraid I would not be able to go into the details on it.