For the first time in Italy blood samples still to be analyzed were transported by drone. In the Milan area, D-Flight – a company of the ENAV Group and owned by Leonardo and Telespazio – which provides drone traffic management services, and Enac, the National Civil Aviation Authority, have carried out, with a specially equipped drone, several flights for the transfer of untested blood samples (dangerous good) taken at the Opera and Rozzano centers of the company Cerba HealthCare Italia, an important player in diagnostics and clinical analyses. The flights, carried out on Monday 27 February, took place without the pilot’s visual contact with the drone. The aircraft, which took off and landed in a controlled fenced area (3×3 metres) is a hexarotor with ballistic parachute, dual communication channel and flight termination system verified by EASA, which weighed 25 kg with its load. The flights, operated by the Nimbus company which designed and developed the drone and the box for the safe transport of blood to be subjected to analysis, involved rural and urban areas. «The experimentation in Milan – declares Alessio Quaranta, ENAC Director General – is part of the strategic activities of advanced air mobility carried out thanks to technological innovation at the service of citizens. In particular, this is the first operating authorization in a specific category issued by ENAC in accordance with Regulation (EU) no. 2019/947 for the safe transport with a drone of biological samples that the legislation classifies as dangerous goods. Ensuring that these services become our daily routine as soon as possible cannot disregard the construction of a system that operates in synergy, as was the case in this case with ENAV and D-Flight. The success of the experiment makes us optimistic for a rapid development of operations with UAS and, more generally, for the implementation of new advanced and sustainable air mobility technologies that are leading us towards a very near future”.
