Problems of legal regulation of issuance of an air operator certificate when using unmanned aerial vehicle

Subject. The subject of the study is the legal problems of obtaining permission to operate aircraft (operator's certificate) in the field of unmanned aviation.

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to confirm or refute the hypothesis of incomplete compliance of the existing practice of issuing an operator's certificate with the principle of proportionality of mandatory requirements and risks in relation to the use of unmanned aircraft, to develop recommendations for improving the norms governing the process of issuing an operator's certificate when using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Methods. The research methods included an analysis of the current state of the existing legal norms governing the process of issuing an operator's certificate when using UAVs, an analysis practices and problems of their application.

Conclusions. According to the results of the study, the authors identify a number of legal problems that hinder the development of the aviation industry with UAVs and create certain risks for the performers of such work:

(1) The presence of norms that are not applicable to the UAV operator (for example, the use of airports, the choice of alternate airfields, the creation of an aviation security service for the operator, the development of an aviation security program, requirements for aviation personnel, etc.);

(2) Legal uncertainty regarding the confirmation of the qualification level of an employee or a person engaged under a civil law contract engaged in work in unmanned aviation;

(3) Limited applicability to unmanned aviation of the forms of documents provided for in Appendix 2 to the Order of the Ministry of Transport dated November 19, 2020 No. 494 (the need to specify the details of certificates of aviation specialists, data on medical examination, information on engineering and technical personnel);

In the end, the authors of the article consider it appropriate to amend the rules for obtaining an operator's certificate for UAV operators with a maximum take-off weight of up to 30 kg.

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