European drone regulation is known for not simply lining aircraft up by weight. Instead it sorts operations by the size of the risk they create. The three-tier frame EASA set out — Open, Specific and Certified — is conceptually clean enough that it makes a genuinely useful reference point even for operators working under a completely different national system. The detailed requirements and current implementation status vary between member states and are revised often, so anyone planning a real operation should confirm current rules with the relevant civil aviation authority. What follows is a structural summary.
The three categories in outline
- Open: low-risk, everyday flying. Within visual line of sight, at low altitude, with separation maintained from uninvolved people — flights that meet the defined conditions operate without individual authorisation.
- Specific: flights that fall outside those Open conditions. Flying beyond visual line of sight, or over an urban area, raises the risk enough that the operator submits an operational risk assessment and obtains authorisation for that specific concept of operations.
- Certified: operations carrying risk comparable to manned aviation — carrying passengers, or transporting dangerous goods. This level expects aircraft certification, licensed pilots and an approved operating organisation.
Why this classification is useful
The strength of the frame is that it asks what you intend to do before it asks what you intend to do it with. The same aircraft photographing farmland within visual range and threading between buildings in a city centre beyond visual range present entirely different risk profiles. When regulation attaches to the operational scenario rather than to a specification sheet, new applications can emerge without the rulebook needing to be rewritten each time.
Equally important is that the boundaries between the categories are continuous. Stepping slightly outside Open does not launch you into Certified. Between them sits a broad middle territory that can be managed through risk assessment, and the existence of that middle ground is what practically opens the door to industrial use.
Using operational risk assessment as a working tool
The operational risk assessment demanded in the Specific category is a safety management tool that any operation can adopt, whether or not an authorisation depends on it. The formal templates look intimidating, but the substance reduces to four questions.
- Ground risk: if the aircraft comes down, what is underneath it? Establish the density of people, vehicles and structures along the route.
- Air risk: is there a realistic chance of another aircraft entering the same volume of airspace?
- Mitigations: ground control lines, posted observers, parachute recovery systems, route diversions, shifting the operation to a different time of day.
- Residual risk: after mitigation, is the remainder acceptable — or does the flight plan itself need to change?
Simply tabulating those four items and filing them as a pre-flight record measurably reduces the chance of an accident. If something does go wrong, the same record becomes the evidence that protects the organisation.
How Korea differs
Korea does not use categories bearing these names. Instead it divides remote pilot certification by the aircraft's maximum take-off weight (MTOW), and runs airspace-based and operation-based approvals as separate procedures alongside it. Certification is administered by the Korea Transportation Safety Authority (TS).
- Class 1: MTOW above 25kg, up to 150kg empty weight — 20 hours of logged flight experience
- Class 2: above 7kg up to 25kg — 10 hours of logged flight experience
- Class 3: above 2kg up to 7kg — 6 hours of logged flight experience
- Class 4: above 250g up to 2kg — completion of an online course, with no practical flight test
Device registration follows purpose as well as weight: commercial operation requires registration regardless of weight, while non-commercial aircraft are registered above 2kg MTOW. Filings go through the Drone One-Stop Civil Service under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Flight above 150m above ground level, in controlled airspace or in prohibited airspace requires flight approval. Aerial photography permission is a wholly separate matter handled by the Ministry of National Defense — a distinction that catches out most operators arriving from Europe, where imagery permission is not usually a defence-ministry question at all.
The most instructive point of contact is BVLOS and night flight. The scenario that most typically pushes an operation from Open into Specific in Europe is, in Korea, managed under the name special flight approval. Applications go to the Regional Aviation Administration, with a stated processing period of 30 days, extendable to 90 days in special circumstances, and are reviewed for conformity with the national safety standard for special unmanned aircraft flight. The route differs, but the principle is identical: flying outside the ordinary envelope means individual review. The practical difference for a planner is one of lead time — a European Specific authorisation and a Korean special flight approval both need to be started well before the intended operating date.
Carrying the frame into Korean practice
The European categories cannot be applied to Korean operations as law, but they work well as an internal decision framework. Ask first whether the flight sits inside ordinary conditions. If it does not, identify which approval is required, how long processing takes, and whether an alternative method achieves the same result inside the ordinary envelope. The principle that heavier risk demands better equipment, more crew and tighter procedure is common to both systems. Note too that mandatory liability insurance for commercial use in Korea starts at 150 million won bodily injury and 20 million won property damage cover, which belongs in the planning stage rather than the week before the flight.
In the end every national system is asking for the same thing: a pilot who has calculated the risk in advance and prepared accordingly. Light Beyond Drones, based in Daejeon, runs remote pilot certification courses alongside field operations consulting. If you would like to work out what level of preparation and which certification your planned operation actually requires, we would be glad to go through it with you.
Sources
The Korean regulatory details in this article are based on the government and public-institution material below. Rules in other countries differ by jurisdiction and change frequently, so please also check the current official publications of the relevant civil aviation authority.
- Korea Ministry of Government Legislation (Easy Law) – Remote Pilot Certification
- Korea Ministry of Government Legislation (Easy Law) – Special Flight Approval
- Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport – Unmanned Aircraft (Drone) Regulatory Overview
- Korea Transportation Safety Authority (TS) – National Qualification Examinations
