Oz’s CASA trials LAANC-like drone access to banned airspaces

Concerned about increasing reports of drones penetrating controlled airspaces – particularly those surrounding the nation’s airports – Australia’s Civil Aviation and Safety Authority (CASA) has chosen four apps to operate a test run of instant access request processing similar to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) system.

The CASA experiment will initially involve four of the nine drone safety apps it had already authorized to provide pilots with real-time information about restricted airspaces around them, or in areas where they are planning to fly craft. In addition to that, the quartet of aerial service companies will now also instantly process flight approval requests for operations in the controlled zones around the Canberra, Adelaide, and Perth airports. If that proves effective, the project could feasibly be broadened to other partners and extended across the country, as LAANC is in…