Auditor urges closer scrutiny of drone registrations

The Audit Commission has urged the Civil Aviation Department (CAD) to improve its verification procedures when registering drones, after finding multiple cases of "odd data" in the system. The commission said it looked at some of the more than 24,000 drone registrations recorded via the Electronic Portal for Small Unmanned Aircraft (eSUA) as of June this year, and found numerous discrepancies. Rules on flying drones in Hong Kong, such as whether permission is needed from the authorities, vary depending – among other things – on the weight of the aircraft in question. But in some cases, the recorded weight of drones registered in the database did not match the standard weight for their model and appear to have ended up in the wrong category, the commission said in a report released on Wednesday. It also found that while drones should have a unique serial number, dozens in the database had duplicate numbers. Another issue flagged up in the report was eSUA account holders deleting their accounts without deregistering their drones. "If an eSUA account has been deleted, there may no longer be any responsible person for the valid SUA [Small Unmanned Aircraft] held under the deleted account," the commission warned. It also discovered that as of June 30, several thousand registrations were "under verification" – with more than 1,250 languishing under this status for more than two years. The commission linked this to an earlier move by the authorities to streamline the registration process by scrapping a requirement for owners to provide a photograph of the registration label attached to their drone. "While CAD has drawn up plans and taken measures to handle the SUA under verification by 30 November 2024, CAD needs to continue to closely monitor the handling of the SUA under verification and take measures to ensure that those cases will be properly followed through," the commission said. It also found that as of the end of June, the CAD had dealt with 38 cases of suspected violations of the SUA Order under the Civil Aviation Ordinance, of which 13 involved tourists. "These indicated that visitors might not be well aware of the requirements under the SUA Order. With a view to enhancing the awareness of visitors on the SUA Order, CAD needs to make sustained efforts in arranging publicity and education targeting visitors," it said. The director-general of Civil Aviation, Victor Liu, said he generally agrees with the commission's recommendations.