As the use of unmanned aircraft is expected to expand significantly, accident prevention is the most important issue. This study classified the characteristics and factors of unmanned aircraft accidents that occurred in Japan between fiscal year 2015 and 2021 and were reported to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. 448 accidents occurred during the seven-year period, and 78％ of them involved human factors, excluding those with unknown accident factors. In particular, 82％ of the accidents with multiple factors involved “inadequate flight planning.” Regarding the reduction of accidents, it is desirable to extend “Crew Resource Management (CRM),” a non-technical skill for aviation safety, to the unmanned aircraft domain to prevent recurrence.

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