On 24 March 2017, the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC) approved a new amendment to the 2015 unmanned aerial systems national regulation. The amendment modifies art. 29 of the regulation by introducing a new safety legal framework which clarifies ENAC’s competency in case of accidents.
The new version of the art. 29 states that if the accident falls among the critical situations listed in annex 5 of the European Commission Implementing Regulation 2015/1018 (air operations, technical occurrences, external environment and meteorology, interaction with air navigation services and air traffic management), drone pilots must report it to ENAC within 72 hours. On the other hand, if a person is fatally or seriously injured in circumstances as listed in the European Commission Implementing Regulation 996/2010, drone pilots must report the occurrence to the Italian Aircraft Accident Investigation Agency (ANSV) within 1 hour.
Moreover, the amended article 29 confirms that ENAC can have access to all the available data related to the drone and the people involved in the occurrence, accident or incident as established in the previous amendment to the national regulation.
Art. 29 applies to drones used for business activities only. In fact, drones used for recreational purposes are not considered as aircraft according to the Italian drone regulations and any occurrence, accident or incident will be addressed by ordinary courts.
More information and the PDF version of the new amendment are available in Italian on ENAC’s website at the following link:
http://www.enac.gov.it/La_Normativa/Normativa_Enac/Regolamenti/Regolamenti_ad_hoc/info-122671512.html
Original article (Italian):
http://www.enac.gov.it/repository/ContentManagement/information/N122671512/Regolamento_APR_Ed_2_Emend_3.pdf