Every drone program should document how its crew handles lost control link, navigation failures, low power, approaching aircraft, loss of visual contact, an unusable landing area, pilot incapacity, and a crash or battery fire. Each procedure needs a recognizable trigger, a named decision-maker, aircraft-specific actions, a safe recovery option, and a record of what happened.
For U.S. civil operations under Part 107, build those instructions around the remote pilot in command (RPIC), the aircraft's current operating instructions, and the actual site. Keep a short response card available at the control station, with a longer procedure explaining settings, limitations, notifications, and return to service. The framework below is recommended program practice; the cited regulations identify the legal duties.
On This Page
- Prepare the crew, aircraft, and site
- Write a usable response card
- Document the failures that change the flight
- Plan for injury, fire, and recovery
- Separate immediate notification from later reports
- Rehearse the procedures and control the restart
Prepare the crew, aircraft, and site
An emergency procedure starts before launch. Section 107.49 requires the RPIC to assess the environment, brief participants on their roles and emergency procedures, confirm working control links, and ensure sufficient power. Section 107.19 places final operational authority with the RPIC. Use the commercial drone preflight checklist to connect that preparation to the flight release. The governing text is in 14 CFR Part 107.
Confirm pilot qualification and recency, fitness for duty, aircraft readiness, and any required airspace authorization or operational waiver before assigning the flight. Carry the issued conditions into the emergency procedures. Public-aircraft operations under a certificate of authorization and operations outside the United States need their own controlling requirements.
Prepare three sets of information:
- Crew: Name the RPIC, person manipulating the controls, any visual observer, and the person who can call for help. Agree on plain calls such as “traffic,” “landing area occupied,” and “stop mission.” Decide who watches the aircraft while another person uses the phone. A solo operator needs a plan that does not depend on an absent helper.
- Aircraft: Identify the aircraft, controller, software configuration, payload, battery, and applicable manual revision. Record the configured lost-link behavior, return destination, navigation dependencies, low-power response, and any approved recovery controls. Verify what each relevant warning means on this system.
- Site: Mark the normal landing area, usable alternatives, obstacles, people, access routes, and local contacts. Include the site address or coordinates and the gate emergency responders should use. A drone site survey supplies this location-specific information.
Carry the cards and site contacts offline. Check that the crew can find them without opening the flight application or relying on cellular coverage.
Treat return-to-home as one configured function, not the whole emergency plan. Its usefulness depends on the actual aircraft and route. Before flight, resolve whether its destination, path, altitude reference, and operating dependencies fit the site. Do not prescribe a universal return height, battery percentage, or reconnect timeout across a fleet. The FAA's AC 107-2A, particularly Chapter 7 and Appendices A and E, supports aircraft-specific inspection and contingency planning.
Write a usable response card
A response card should help a pilot recognize the condition and take the next action without searching a long manual. Use one card per failure, or group failures only when their actions genuinely match. Put immediate flight actions first and administrative steps after recovery.
The following is an adaptable writing template, not a flight checklist ready for an unidentified aircraft. Complete it from the equipment instructions and site assessment before issuing it to a crew.
| Card field | What the program must enter |
|---|---|
| Identity and applicability | Procedure name, revision, aircraft/configuration, and linked manual section |
| Trigger | Observable warning or condition, including how it differs from a similar fault |
| Immediate response | Who takes control, what call is made, and the exact applicable control sequence |
| Expected aircraft behavior | What should happen automatically, its dependencies, and how the pilot recognizes it |
| Recovery decision | Conditions for the planned landing, an alternate, or the aircraft-specific last-resort action |
| Escalation | Who alerts people or contacts responders/air traffic services, and the information to give |
| After landing | Isolation, evidence capture, required notifications, and who controls return to service |
This template is an editorial application of the risk and contingency planning in AC 107-2A. It does not establish new FAA paperwork requirements.
Write observable triggers. “Battery problem” is too broad for a response card. A low-energy warning, abnormal heating on the ground, and an unexpected power loss in flight need different actions. Likewise, distinguish loss of the camera display from loss of command authority using the manufacturer's indications. Do not assume a frozen image proves that every radio function has failed.
Connect each card to the hazard it addresses in the drone risk assessment. If a proposed response depends on a clear alternate landing area, the preflight record must show that the area was actually checked.
Document the failures that change the flight
The program should cover the following conditions even when its aircraft groups them under different warning names. These are procedure-design requirements to adapt to your operation, rather than universal button presses.
Lost control link, display failure, and flyaway
Record how the pilot distinguishes a display/application failure from a lost command link, the configured failsafe response, and the permitted method of restoring control. Explain how to verify that control has returned before issuing further commands. Do not make repeated restarts the default response without an aircraft-specific basis.
Define a separate escalation for an aircraft that is no longer following commands or its expected recovery behavior. The card should assign visual tracking where possible, recording of the last known position and direction, warnings to exposed people, and contact with relevant air traffic services when other aviation could be affected. Preselect contacts appropriate to the site and operating permission; do not assume every small-drone operation has an air traffic control (ATC) radio channel.
Record any manufacturer-provided flight-termination function and its limitations separately. A command that stops propulsion in flight may create a ground hazard. Its presence is not a reason to use it automatically whenever a connection warning appears.
Navigation degradation and loss of visual contact
Document the warnings associated with degraded positioning or heading and the approved response for the actual flight mode. Identify which recovery functions depend on navigation that may now be unreliable. A generic instruction to “switch to manual” is incomplete if the aircraft lacks that mode or the pilot has not trained for it.
Write a distinct procedure for loss of visual contact. Specify the crew's calls, immediate recovery decision, and how to avoid continuing an unseen mission while searching a screen. Ordinary Part 107 visual-observation duties are in section 107.31; an unexpected loss does not establish permission to plan beyond-visual-line-of-sight flight.
Low energy, propulsion problems, and worsening weather
Define the manufacturer's relevant warnings and the program's earlier mission-stop criteria. Record how wind, distance, payload, and available landing areas affect the recovery choice. A remaining battery indication alone does not determine whether a return path is suitable.
For abnormal vibration, damage, or other indications that the aircraft may no longer be safe, identify the applicable landing response and the postflight maintenance hold. Section 107.15 prohibits continuing flight when the system is no longer in a condition for safe operation. The objective is safe recovery, not finishing the last inspection pass.
Include weather deterioration and loss of adequate visibility as explicit stop conditions. Choose limits from the applicable rules, aircraft instructions, and site assessment; define the response before those limits are reached.
Approaching aircraft or an occupied landing area
Assign the traffic call and the RPIC's response. Part 107 requires the drone to yield to other aircraft and avoid creating a collision hazard. Avoid a blanket instruction to climb, descend, or return home without regard to the traffic and terrain.
For people or vehicles entering the recovery area, identify who warns them and how the pilot chooses an available alternate. Check the route to the alternate as well as the landing spot. Do not write a plan that requires the pilot to wait indefinitely for the normal pad to clear.
Remote ID broadcast failure
Keep this separate from control-link failure. Under Part 89, Subpart B, a Standard Remote ID aircraft or an aircraft using a broadcast module must land as soon as practicable if the required message broadcast stops. A working camera or command link does not cancel that duty. Record the warning, recovery, and correction before further operations requiring that equipment.
Pilot incapacity or loss of crew communication
Specify how a qualified, briefed person can take over when the equipment and staffing permit it. Do not assume an observer can operate an unfamiliar controller. For a solo flight, document the limitations of the recovery functions actually available rather than inventing a backup pilot.
If observer communication fails, the card must address loss of the coordination on which the flight depends. Section 107.33 requires effective communication when a visual observer is used. End the affected operation through the applicable safe recovery procedure instead of treating silence as agreement to continue.
Plan for injury, fire, and recovery
Make the first priorities protection of people and access for responders. Assign who calls 911 for an injury or fire requiring emergency assistance, who gives the exact location, and who meets responders if staffing allows. Include known hazards such as damaged batteries, energized equipment, roads, water, and difficult terrain.
For battery events, the U.S. Fire Administration identifies excessive heat, odor, deformation, leakage, and unusual noises as reasons to stop using a lithium-ion battery. Write a ground procedure that keeps people clear, calls for help when needed, and follows the battery manufacturer's instructions. Have the site's fire-safety lead or local fire service review any proposed firefighting role and equipment. Do not assign an untrained crewmember to retrieve or carry a burning pack.
Separate locating the aircraft from authorizing recovery. A map position does not make entry onto a road, railway, power installation, private property, or unstable terrain safe or lawful. Set the contact and access decision before anyone goes looking for wreckage.
After a crash or serious malfunction, mark the aircraft and affected components unavailable for flight. Preserve original logs, controller alerts, imagery, configuration, and witness accounts. Avoid updates, resets, or test flights that could overwrite evidence. If National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) notification is required, follow its preservation rules before moving or altering wreckage except for the permitted protective reasons.
Separate immediate notification from later reports
Use a notification matrix with a responsible person, contact route, trigger, deadline, and confirmation field. Keep customer or insurer notices separate from regulatory reports. Neither replaces the other.
Emergency deviation: Section 107.21 permits deviation from Part 107 only to the extent necessary for an in-flight emergency requiring immediate action. A written deviation report is required if the FAA requests one. Record what happened and why the action was necessary; do not treat this provision as advance permission for an otherwise unauthorized mission.
FAA safety-event report: Under section 107.9, report within 10 calendar days when the operation involves serious injury, any loss of consciousness, or qualifying damage to property other than the drone. For property damage, the rule excludes repair costs of $500 or less, including labor and materials, or property worth $500 or less when it is a total loss. The FAA's reporting instructions direct operators to DroneZone or the nearest Flight Standards District Office.
NTSB notification and reports: Check 49 CFR Part 830 separately. Immediate notification applies to covered accidents and listed serious incidents, including an in-flight collision or fire. The current unmanned-aircraft accident definition includes death or serious injury, or substantial damage to an aircraft holding an airworthiness certificate. Older guidance using a 300-pound threshold is out of date. Do not wait for the FAA's ten-day deadline before evaluating NTSB notification.
Part 830 also governs preservation and follow-up reports. Its accident report is due within ten days; a report for an immediately notifiable incident is filed when requested. Before the Board takes custody, notified-event wreckage may be moved only as necessary to remove injured or trapped people, protect it from further damage, or protect the public. Document original positions when possible. Retain relevant records and follow the Board's directions. Record the agency contacted, time, information supplied, instructions received, and follow-up owner.
A useful event record captures the date and time zone, location, crew, aircraft and battery identifiers, configuration, sequence of warnings and actions, injuries or damage, recovery location, original data locations, and notifications. Mark unknowns as unknown. This recommended record structure supports investigation without assigning a cause before the facts are established.
Rehearse the procedures and control the restart
Start with a tabletop rehearsal. Give the crew a situation, let them use the actual cards, and ask them to identify the next action and who performs it. A simulator or an aircraft safely configured on the ground can support familiarization where appropriate. Do not create real lost-link events, low-battery emergencies, or hazardous failures merely to test the paperwork.
For example, rehearse a lost-control-link indication while the normal landing area becomes occupied. The pilot must explain the configured aircraft response, the observer must identify its actual position where visible, and the crew must assess whether the expected recovery remains usable. If nobody can explain how those facts change the plan, revise the procedure and training before the mission.
Record the scenario, participants, procedure revision, observed gaps, corrective actions, and reassessment. Use an instructor or program-designated evaluator familiar with the system. A certificate or a signature on the briefing sheet does not by itself show that the person can execute that recovery.
Before returning a grounded aircraft to service, close the defect through the applicable maintenance process, confirm required inspections and any investigation release, recheck configuration, and authorize the next flight through the program's normal process. AC 107-2A Chapter 7 provides maintenance guidance; a successful power-on alone is not a complete release decision.
Review cards after an event, drill finding, equipment or software change, new mission type, or relevant rule change. Remove superseded copies from the field kit. The practical finish is a crew that can identify the failure, use the correct aircraft procedure, protect people, and explain what must happen before flying again.
Sources
- 14 CFR Part 107: federal requirements for RPIC authority, safe condition, emergencies, visual observation, preflight actions, right of way, and safety-event reporting.
- FAA AC 107-2A: advisory guidance for inspection, maintenance, risk assessment, and contingency procedures. Current regulations control where older advisory text differs.
- 14 CFR Part 89, Subpart B: operating requirements after Remote ID broadcast loss.
- U.S. Fire Administration: Battery Fire Safety: battery warning signs and public fire-safety guidance.
- FAA: How to submit a Part 107 accident report: current reporting routes.
- 49 CFR Part 830: NTSB definitions, immediate notification, preservation, and follow-up reporting.
Last checked: September 8, 2026. Recheck current rules, operating permissions, and aircraft instructions when issuing or revising your program's procedures.