Q2 2023 kept a familiar but worrying pattern: unauthorized small unmanned aircraft remained a persistent presence around major airports, and most of the operational risk showed up where we already operate with the smallest margins. For pilots and operations folks the numbers and studies from the spring and early summer of 2023 point to three practical realities.

First, volume stayed high. The FAA maintains a rolling set of public “Reported UAS Sightings” files covering April through June 2023 and other quarters. On the agency site the FAA continues to note it receives on the order of a hundred or more reports near airports each month. That level of reporting is not a theoretical risk. It is a monthly operational headache for controllers and flight crews because when a drone is reported inside controlled airspace the immediate response is conservative and disruptive. (See FAA public records.)

Second, risk concentrates on final approach and departure corridors. Objective work published in July 2023 by researchers at Embry Riddle used telemetry and objective analysis around a major U.S. hub and confirmed what pilots already suspect: most close encounters occur within roughly 1.5 miles of the runway and in the low altitude band where arriving and departing aircraft overlap with where hobby and commercial drones operate. That study found a measurable number of near midair collisions in that high exposure zone and the authors recommended expanding exclusion strategies for critical approach and departure airspace. The practical takeaway is straightforward. When you are on approach or departure you are in the same volume of air that drone operators are likely to occupy. That makes vigilance and immediate reporting essential. (See Embry Riddle July 2023 coverage.)

Third, a handful of high visibility operational interruptions in Q2 illustrated how small numbers of unauthorized UAS can cascade into delays and ground stops. Local recordings and contemporaneous reporting show incidents in early June 2023 where airports issued temporary ground stops after drone reports. Those events are the operational proof points behind the broader statistics — an unauthorized UAS sighting can and will stop traffic until the airspace is cleared. LiveATC audio logs and press reports from June 2023 capture one such temporary ground stop at Pittsburgh International that lasted on the order of tens of minutes. For crews that means missed slots, rework, and nontrivial workload when controllers shift priorities to resolve a possible hazard. (See June 2023 local reporting and ATC recordings.)

What the quarter-level data and contemporaneous research tell us about where the problem is worst near the busiest hubs:

  • Hot zones are the approach/departure corridors and the first few thousand feet above the ground. Studies and objective analyses consistently place most close calls inside that area. That is where the flight paths of aircraft and small UAS overlap. (Embry Riddle July 2023.)

  • Density matters. Busiest hubs are attractive for malicious or careless UAS operations because of population density around airports, easy access to takeoff sites, and the immediate operational effect they cause. The busier the airport the greater the chance a single errant drone will intersect with a flight path. (FAA reported sightings data.)

  • A small number of repeat or deliberate bad actors account for outsized operational impacts. Objective analyses looking at repeat incidents at some hubs suggest many NMACs involve a small set of problem platforms or operators. That means targeted enforcement and technology can be an efficient lever. (See Embry Riddle analysis and related reporting.)

What pilots and operators should be doing now, based on the Q2 2023 evidence:

1) Strict reporting discipline. If you see a UAS in a critical flight phase, call it immediately to ATC and file a report afterward. The aggregated sighting data only exists because crews and ATC report. Timely reporting helps the airport and law enforcement clear and investigate the event.

2) Expect and train for sudden workload spikes. When ATC declares a temporary ground stop or issues traffic advisories you must prioritize flying the aircraft and follow controller instructions. These events create nonstandard communications and sequencing, so crews should rehearse the callouts and briefings for a UAS sighting scenario.

3) Work with airports on local mitigation. Airport authorities, law enforcement, and FAA detection trials and rulemaking activity in 2023 are all responses to these trends. The FAA convened an ARC for UAS detection and mitigation in the spring of 2023 to develop safe standards for detection and mitigation systems. Airports and airlines should be in active contact with local stakeholders as candidate detection systems are tested and evaluated so those systems do not create new hazards for normal ops. (See FAA ARC charter and related FAA materials.)

4) Support sensible exclusion geometry and geofencing. The empirical evidence that most encounters occur in the approach and departure footprints argues for stronger electronic and procedural protections in those volumes. Expanding effective exclusion geometry around critical runway ends is not a pilot convenience. It is an operational safety priority suggested by objective analyses in mid 2023.

5) Push for better tools for law enforcement and faster attribution. Remote ID and LAANC tools are only useful if enforcement partners can act quickly. The Q2 2023 reporting posture demonstrates detection without timely attribution limits the operational benefit of detection systems.

Bottom line for crews: the data from Q2 2023 are consistent and operationally relevant. Incursion rates around airports remained high, the near-miss risk is concentrated in the lowest altitudes and in approach/departure corridors, and real world ground stops continue to happen when an authorized clearance is lost to an errant UAS. That means the practical defensive posture for pilots and airlines is unchanged. Fly to the procedures, report what you see, brief the non-normal, and press your airports and regulators to prioritize effective, non-interfering detection and rapid enforcement. The statistics and studies from the spring and early summer of 2023 should shape tactics and training for crews at the busiest hubs for the remainder of the year.