On 3 August 2009, control of a rotary UAV being operated by an agricultural cooperative for routine crop spraying in the south western part of South Korea was lost and the remote pilot was fatally injured when it then collided with him. The Investigation found that an inappropriately set pitch trim switch went unnoticed and the consequentially unexpected trajectory was not recognised and corrected. The context was assessed as inadequacies in the operator’s safety management arrangements and the content of the applicable UAV Operations Manual as well as lack of recurrent training for the operators’ qualified UAV remote pilots.
Description
On 3 August 2009, control of a Yamaha Motor Company RMAX L17 rotary UAV (S7012) being operated by the Osu Agricultural Cooperative at Imsil-gun in day VMCwas lost and it subsequently collided with the remote pilot who sustained fatal injuries and then fell to the ground. The only external damage to the UAV was the breaking off of parts of the main rotor blades, damage to the skid due to uncontrolled ground impact and the severing of the two pesticide canisters from the airframe. There were no other immediate consequences of the Accident.
The UAV involved prior to the Accident. [Reproduced from the Official Report]
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