Drones 2017: Accident and Investigation

Lt Cdr Scott Hislop: Defence AIB Senior Engineer (Maritime), Defence Accident Investigation Branch

Lt Cdr Scott Hislop is a Chartered Engineer with a MSc in Engineering and Project Management, having spent most of his career within a rotary wing environment he joining the Defence Accident Investigation Branch 3 years ago. An advocate of technology he identified that an organic unmanned aerial system capability could delivery significant benefits within accident investigation. As Senior System Operator he led the procurement of the UAS; identifying the air-vehicle, generating the Operations Manual, developing the training requirements and detailing the deployment routines. Ever keen to maintain ‘grass roots’ knowledge, he’s deployed with the UAS to both Air and Land incidents.

Richard Ross: Principal Inspector, Air Accident Investigation Branch

Richard Ross is a Principal Inspector at the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), with over 15 years’ experience investigating the engineering aspects of aircraft accidents and incidents. He leads the AAIB project team that was one of the first to deploy UAVs in support of air accident investigations. Before joining the AAIB, he spent ten years at British Airways as a technical services engineer supporting the Boeing and Airbus fleets. He began his career as an aerodynamicist in the design of air-launched weapons, having graduated from the Hatfield Polytechnic in 1986 with a BSc(Hons) in Aeronautical Engineering.

Ian Capewell: Safety and Airworthiness Head, Defence Equipment and Support, Rail Accident Investigation Branch

Ian Capewell trained as a Rail Engineer with British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) in Crewe from 1981 to 1987. He joined the British Transport Police serving most of his career in London as an operational detective. During the 1990 he was promoted and managed the Central London Robbery teams and was seconded to the Major Investigation Teams within the Metropolitan Police. In 1998 Ian was promoted to Scientific Support Manager with the Scientific Support Department managing the Crime scene and Laboratory staff. Ian was instrumental in developing the BTP’s DNA policy and Fingerprint NAFIS Department within the force.

From 1999 to 2004 Ian coordinated the scene examination and recovery of all technical and forensic evidence in all UK major train accidents (Ladbroke Grove, Hatfield, Great Heck, Potters Bar and Ufton Nervet) and was later seconded to the Home Office Major Disaster Advisory Team (MDAT) as a tactical advisor.

Ian joined the RAIB in 2004 and has been responsible for investigative training of Inspectors in photography, forensics, site management and interviewing within in the three accident branches. Ian qualified (PfaW) in 2016 and was instrumental in the development and use of uav technology within the RAIB.

Thomas Braagaard Sylvest: Head of UAV Education and Operation, Copenhagen Fire Department

Thomas started as a EMT in the ambulance service at Copenhagen Fire Dept. In 1990, he continued as a fire fighter and continued as a watch commander in the Special Unit at Greater Copenhagen Fire Dept.
Greater Copenhagen Fire Department is by far the largest Fire and Rescue Service in Denmark. The area covers more  than  100km  coastline  as  well  as  key  strategic  and  historical landmarks, such as the Queens Palace, the main Government building, a large number of historical buildings in the heart of the old town. In addition to this, Greater Copenhagen Fire  Department  also  covers  Copenhagen Harbor  with  its  oil port  and  several  large industrial production companies.
In crisis situations one of the first requirements is to get the best situational awareness information, as quickly as possible and to that end the RPAS is a key strategic asset.
Since Greater Copenhagen Fire Department began  using  a  RPAS  in  2014, Captain Thomas Sylvest has been the only pilot. At the start of 2017 they now expect to have an additional 6 pilots, so they’ll be available 24/7. The RPAS unit uses three different setups with the DJI Inspire -one with a Z3 zoom camera, a FLIR XT Thermal camera, and the ZT zenmuse camera.

Mark Callaghan: Operational Lead for Drones, National Police Chiefs Council

Mark Callaghan is the National Police Chief Council Operational Lead for drones and is the Drone Project Manager for Surrey and Sussex Police. He is responsible for ensuring the use of drones by Police Forces nationally is standardised and co-ordinated.

Mark has written the NPCC Guidance on both Police use of drones and on dealing with Misuse and represents the Police Service in the development of the Government drone strategy. Prior to his current role Mark served for 27 years as a Police Officer with Sussex Police. During his career he specialised in Communications, Firearms, Neighbourhood Policing and Aviation Security.

Adam Green: Specialist Project Manager, Operational Response Planning, Kent Fire and Rescue Service

Adam Green is a Specialist Projects Manager for Kent Fire and Rescue Service. He has worked for the Fire Service for 16 years and has undertaken a range of roles. Recent roles include: Project Officer and Operational Lead for Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme, South East representative for User Configuration Sub Group (ESMCP), Kent Lead for Enhanced Logistics Support, Air Operations Manager and Tactical Advisor for Airwave.

Adam is responsible for introducing and implementing technology on the fire ground to provide risk critical information to fire service personnel. This includes the introduction of a drone in 2015.

Chris Rainford: Watch Manager, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service

Chris Rainford works for Lancashire Fire and Rescue as their chief drone pilot, after recently retiring from Manchester Fire and Rescue, where he spent 30 years as an operational fire officer, including the last 6 as their project lead on drone operations. He is the first NQE ( National Qualified Entity), a CAA qualification which will allows him to deliver bespoke training courses specifically designed for the Emergency Services. Chris has attended nearly 200 drone incidents with his last two brigades, gaining more experience of this kind of work than anyone else in the UK. It has led to invitations to deliver training all over Europe, as well as being asked to speak at the EU commission on the subject of disaster deployment for drones.

Mirko Kovac: Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College

Dr. Mirko Kovac is a Director of the Aerial Robotics Laboratory at the Aeronautics Department at Imperial College London. His research interest is the conception and implementation of novel mobility solutions for robotics and agent based autonomous manufacturing. Before his appointment in London, he was post-doctoral researcher at at Harvard University and he obtained his PhD at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). He received his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) in 2005. During his studies he was research associate with the University of California in Berkeley USA, RIETER Automotive Switzerland, the WARTSILA Diesel Technology Division in Switzerland, and CISERV in Singapore. Since 2006, he has presented his work at numerous international conferences and in journals and has won several best paper and best presentation awards. He has delivered 24 keynote lectures and 28 invited talks on bio-inspired robotics at leading research institutions and conferences world wide including the World Knowledge Dialogue Symposium 2008, the Robotics Systems and Sciences conference as well as  the London Innovation Summit 2014 and 2016. He is also advisor to the U.K. government on the topic of Aerial Robotics and is regularly consulting on technology foresight and strategy development for industry.

John Rickard: Safety and Airwothiness Head, Defence Equipment and Support, Ministry of Defence

John Rickard as the UK MoD Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) Safety Manager, and has  been responsible for bringing into service every modern day UAS from and including Phoenix for the last 20 years, and is one of the founding members of the UAS Team. He is also accountable for Airworthiness and Safety of all new and future UAS systems and demonstrators.

Pete McCarthy: Lecturer, Human Factors and Accident Investigation, Cranfield University

Prior to joining Cranfield University as an academic member of staff, Pete served for 32 years in the British Army. As an army helicopter pilot and aircraft commander he has seen operational military service all over the world.

Pete has worked as an Air Accident Investigator, and is an accredited Human Factors specialist with the European Association of Aviation Psychology (EAAP). 

Introducing drones to the accident investigation training courses at Cranfield University, Pete’s PhD research project is titled “Small Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) Application to Accident Investigation”.

Gary Thompson MSc. FCMI: Temp Assistant Chief Constable, Gloucestershire Constabulary

Gary joined the Gloucestershire Constabulary in 1987 and is approaching the end of a 30 year career.

During that time, he has performed a variety of operationally focussed roles including Specialist Operations and Major Crime Investigations.

Gary has recently completed an organisational operating model redesign to ensure service to the public was at the heart of all the Constabulary`s activities.

Certified by the CAA to operate UAV`s commercially & with a real interest in technology which has led to the successful completion of an MSc in Computing. He is a fellow of the Chartered Management Institute & is a certified Prince II practitioner.

Colin O'Neill: Senior Forensic Collision Investigator, Sussex Police

Colin O’Neill is the Senior Forensic Collision Investigator for Sussex Police and the National Secretary to the Senior Forensic Collision Investigators group of the NPCC (National Police Chief’s Council formerly ACPO). He has over 25 years’ experience in the field of collision investigation and is also a former chairman of the Institute of Traffic Accident Investigators. He has undertaken numerous investigations and reconstructions into fatal and life changing collisions, both in the UK and abroad and he currently oversees all fatal injury and life changing collisions in Sussex.

Caroline Bailey: Regional Sales Manager, Pix4D

Caroline Bailey works as a Regional Sales Manager at Pix4D, a Swiss drone-mapping software enterprise. Pix4D technology enables UAVs to become the inspection tool of the future; empowering individuals to instantly capture their own 3D model of any changing environment. Pix4D offers a practical solution to Accident and Emergency personnel who need to capture data quickly in the field and analyse recreated scenes accurately in the office. Founded in 2011, Pix4D is rapidly expanding from its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, to offices in Shanghai and San Francisco.

Craig Stead: Pilot, Air Accident Investigation Branch

Craig Stead has worked for the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch for the last 10 years, as an Engineering Support specialist. He has been a member of the AAIB’s UAV project team, since they started to look at the use of UAV’s for accident site management, investigation and mapping. He is now one of their main operators, and has used UAV’s at more than twenty site around the country. Prior to this he was a licenced aircraft engineer, working on small aircraft and corporate jets.