Unmanned Aircraft Systems Risk Assessment Based on SORA for First Responders and Disaster Management

Worldwide, there is a significant increase in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by emergency services. They offer a lot of possibilities during rescue operations. Such a wide application for various purposes and environments causes many threats related to their use. To minimize the risks associated with conducting air operations with UAVs, the application of the SORA (Specific Operations Risk Assessment) methodology will be important. Due to its level of detail, it is a methodology adapted to civilian use. In this article, the authors’ team will try to develop guidelines and directions for adapting SORA to the requirements of the operational work of emergency services. Thus, the following article aims to present the most important risks related to conducting operations with the use of UAVs by first responders (FRs), and to show the sample risk analysis performed for this type of operation on the example of the ASSISTANCE project. The paper describes, on the one hand, possibilities offered by UAVs in crisis or disaster management and step-by-step Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA), and on the other hand, presents possible threats, consequences and methods of their mitigation during FR missions.