When Things Go Wrong (And They Will): Emergency Response for Real-World Operations

Every RPAS ground school covers emergency procedures. Return to Home. Manual landing. What to do if you lose GPS. You memorize the steps, pass the test, and hope you never need them.

Then you're standing in a field, your drone is behaving strangely, and you realize that knowing the theory and executing under pressure are very different things.

This isn't about the textbook emergencies. It's about the messy, complicated situations that actually happen in the field, and how to handle them without making things worse.

The Most Important Emergency Procedure: Your Brain

Before we talk about specific scenarios, let's talk about the one thing that determines whether an incident becomes a minor inconvenience or a career-defining disaster: your mental state.

When something goes wrong, your brain wants to do one of two things: freeze or panic. Both are terrible for emergency response.

The antidote is simple but requires practice: verbalize what's happening.

"I've lost video feed. Aircraft is 200 metres out, 50 metres altitude, heading northeast."

Saying it out loud does three things. It forces your brain to actually process what's happening instead of spinning. It creates a record for anyone listening (your spotter, your client). And it slows you down just enough to make a decision instead of a reaction.

Practice this in normal operations. Narrate your flights occasionally. "Climbing to 100 metres. Starting survey pattern. Wind is picking up from the west." When the emergency comes, you'll default to this mode instead of silence.

When Your Battery Is Dying Faster Than Expected

This is probably the most common "emergency" in remote sensing work, and it's almost always survivable if you don't panic.

What's happening: Your battery percentage is dropping faster than planned. Maybe it's cold. Maybe you miscalculated. Maybe the battery is aging. Whatever the reason, you're not going to complete your mission on this battery.

What most people do wrong: They try to finish just one more pass, push to just one more waypoint, convince themselves the percentage will stabilize. It won't.

What to do:

1. Note your current position and what you've captured.

2. Begin return immediately - not when the warning sounds, but now.

3. If the battery is critically low, don't trust RTH. Fly direct to the nearest safe landing spot, even if it's not your launch point.

4. Land with margin. A controlled landing with 15% battery is infinitely better than a forced landing with 0%.

   
   

What to tell the client: "I need to bring the aircraft back early due to battery performance. I've captured [X portion] of the site. I'll swap batteries and complete the remaining area on the next flight."

No drama. No excuses. Just information and a plan.

When You Lose Visual Contact

This happens more than operators want to admit, especially on large sites or when flying at distance. One moment you can see your aircraft; the next, you've lost it against the sky or behind an obstacle.

What most people do wrong: They keep flying while frantically scanning the sky, or they immediately hit RTH without understanding where the aircraft actually is.

What to do:

1. Stop. Hold position if your aircraft supports it, or at a minimum, stop any lateral movement.

2. Check your telemetry. Where does your controller say the aircraft is? What direction? What altitude?

3. If you have a spotter, communicate. "I've lost visual. Aircraft should be bearing [X], approximately [Y] metres out."

4. Use your camera. If you have a live feed, pan down. Look for landmarks. Orient yourself to what the aircraft sees.

5. Once you have a mental model of where it is, fly it back toward you at a safe altitude. Pick it up visually before you resume operations.

In Canada, flying beyond the visual line of sight without authorization is a regulatory violation. If you genuinely cannot reacquire visual contact and cannot safely return the aircraft to visual range, you have an incident to report. Don't compound the problem by continuing to fly blind.

When the Weather Turns

Mountain operators and coastal operators know this one well. Weather in Canada changes fast, and a site that was VFR when you took off can deteriorate while you're in the air.

Warning signs:

• Wind speed increasing at altitude (aircraft struggling to hold position)

• Visibility dropping (aircraft getting harder to see)

• Precipitation starting

• Temperature dropping rapidly (affects batteries)

What to do:

Don't try to finish the mission. Weather that's marginal now will likely be worse in ten minutes.

1. Note what you've captured.

2. Begin return immediately.

3. If conditions are deteriorating rapidly, land as soon as safely possible - even if that's not your planned landing zone.

4. Secure the aircraft and get yourself to safety.

What to tell the client: "Weather conditions are no longer suitable for safe flight. I've captured [X portion] today. I can return [tomorrow/next week] to complete the remaining area, or we can discuss options for working with what I've collected."

Most clients respect weather decisions. The ones who don't are clients you probably don't want.

When the Aircraft Isn't Responding Correctly

This is the scary one. You're giving commands, and the aircraft is doing something else—or nothing.

First: Determine what kind of "not responding" you're dealing with.

Delayed response: There's lag between your input and the aircraft's reaction. Usually a link issue. Often survivable.

Wrong response: You push left, it goes right. You climb, it descends. This is serious. Something is fundamentally wrong.

No response: Complete loss of control. The aircraft is doing its own thing.

For delayed response:

• Reduce distance between you and the aircraft

• Climb to reduce signal obstruction

• Make slow, deliberate inputs and wait for response

• Begin return while you still have control

For wrong response:

• Stop all inputs immediately

• If RTH is available and working, use it

• Prepare for the possibility of a forced landing

• Clear the area below the aircraft if possible

For no response:

• Your aircraft should have failsafe behavior programmed. It will likely RTH or land in place.

• Track it visually. Know where it's going.

• Clear people from the likely landing area.

• If it's heading somewhere dangerous and you cannot regain control, you're now in incident management mode.

The Flyaway

Let's talk about the nightmare scenario: the aircraft has departed controlled flight and is flying away from you.

This is rare with modern equipment, but it happens. Usually it's a compass error combined with GPS issues, or a complete control link failure in an aircraft that doesn't have good failsafe behavior.

What to do:

1. Try to regain control. Toggle flight modes. Attempt to trigger RTH manually. If you have a secondary link (like a phone app), try that.

2. Track it. Even if you've lost visual, your telemetry may still be updating. Note the last known position, heading, and altitude.

3. Clear the area. If you have any idea where it's going, warn people. If it's heading toward roads, structures, or people, do what you can to alert them.

4. Document everything. Time of loss of control. Last known position. What you tried. What the aircraft was doing.

5. Report it. In Canada, you must report accidents and incidents to Transport Canada. A flyaway is an incident. Don't pretend it didn't happen.

6. Find it. After the situation is stabilized, search for the aircraft. Modern drones often log their final position. Use it.

What to tell the client: This is one of those situations where honesty is the only option. "I experienced a loss of control and the aircraft flew away from the site. I was unable to recover it. I'm documenting the incident and will report it to the appropriate authorities. I understand this affects our project, and I want to discuss how to proceed."

It's an awful conversation. But concealing an incident is worse - legally, professionally, and ethically.

The Post-Incident Debrief

Every emergency, whether it's a minor battery scare or a full flyaway, deserves a debrief. Not a self-flagellation session. A genuine analysis.

What happened? Describe the sequence of events factually.

What did I do? Document your response, including any mistakes.

What would I do differently? This is where the learning happens.

What changes to my operation will I make? New checklist items? Different equipment? Changed personal minimums?

Write it down. Not for anyone else - for yourself. The operators who get better are the ones who learn from every incident, including the near-misses that nobody else ever knows about.

Building Your Emergency Readiness

The best emergency response is one you've practiced. Not just thought about—actually practiced.

Chair, fly your emergencies. Sit with your controller, no aircraft, and walk through scenarios. "Battery warning at 300 metres. What do I do? Where do I go?"

Set up your failsafes deliberately. Know exactly what your aircraft will do if it loses connection. Test it in a safe environment.

Know your aircraft's emergency features. Does it have a motor cut? When does it auto-land? Can you override RTH if needed?

Have your emergency contacts ready. Site emergency numbers. Transport Canada reporting. Your insurance provider.

When something goes wrong—and eventually it will—you won't rise to the occasion. You'll fall to your level of preparation.

Make sure that the level is high.

Aeria Solutions is a full-spectrum remote sensing company based in Canada. Our SECOR certification reflects our commitment to safety management, and we believe that honest discussion about incidents and emergencies makes the entire industry safer.