Lake Erie Accident Report Faults ‘Uncrewed Vessel’ Watchstanding

We were just about the first national outlet to report it: On August 10, 2024 a recreational vessel on Lake Erie ran down and destroyed an uncrewed surface vessel or USV for short—a drone boat. “Is this just the beginning?” we asked in the headline as USVs were proliferating on American waterways.

That worry was shared by the National Transportation Safety Board, which on Tuesday issued six recommendations “to improve the perceptibility and safe operations of USV.”

(By the way, the “U” used to be for “unmanned.” Apparently they are uncrewed surface vessels now.)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was using the drone to collect water samples. According to the NTSB, the drone was damaged beyond repair for a loss of $186,000. The recreational boat, a Prestige 450 Flybridge, had $100,000 in damage from the 16-foot USV becoming entangled in its starboard propeller pod.

The guy piloting the Prestige never saw the thing he hit. His boat didn’t have AIS, the radar mast was folded down, and he wasn’t monitoring the VHF or a chartplotter.

Operational shortcomings notwithstanding, the NTSB pointed out that the USV had only about a foot of freeboard and concluded that “the research vessel’s visual, electronic and audible detectability was inadequate for the area in which it operated.”

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The NTSB wrote:

At the time of the collision, NOAA was operating the USV in “adapted hold” mode, which allowed the vessel to automatically return to preset waypoints if it drifted beyond a 150-foot radius established by its remote pilot. The pilot passively monitored the vessel from ashore while the system maintained its waypoints. The NTSB determined that this level of monitoring was insufficient for safe operation in an area frequented by recreational vessels.

THE REPORT

	Collision Between National Oceanic and … 2.32MB ∙ PDF file
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Investigators also found that, at the time of the collision, there were no industry-wide standards specifically addressing the perceptibility, collision-avoidance capabilities and navigational safety of USVs operating in U.S. inland and territorial waters.

Our follow-up to the original accident report looked at a Coast Guard officer’s study which argued that uncrewed vessels failed to comply with regulations on keeping a proper watch.

Underway, Drone Boats Are by Definition Unlawful, Says Coast Guard Author Peter Swanson   ·   Jul 23 Read full story

NTSB’s Six Recommendations

To the U.S. Coast Guard:

• Establish nationwide safety standards for uncrewed vessels, including visibility and collision avoidance.
• Incorporate those standards into federal regulations.

To NOAA:

• Require uncrewed vessels to be sufficiently visible to other boaters in their operating areas.
• Test uncrewed vessels to ensure other boaters can detect them.
• Require remote monitoring appropriate to each vessel’s actual autonomy, operating mode and location.

To the manufacturer of the USV, SeaTrac Systems:

• Redesign the SP-48 research vessel to improve its visibility to other boaters, as practicable.

According to the NTSB, the U.S. Coast Guard has been working on a policy papers on USV operation for years:

When the collision occurred, the Coast Guard was in the process of drafting formal policies for the use of uncrewed and autonomous vessels. A Coast Guard Navigation and Vessel Inspection Circular (NVIC), “Best Practices for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships and Unmanned Maritime Systems,” was drafted in September of 2020, and a Coast Guard Commandant Instruction, “Autonomous and Remote Controlled Vessel Activities,” had been in draft stages since July 2021.

According to the Coast Guard, the NVIC and Commandant Instruction sought to establish definitions, an operational framework, a risk mitigation framework, and roles and responsibilities, among other items, to safely integrate uncrewed vessels into operational waterways.

As of the publication of this report, these documents have not been published.