An aircraft suffers a motor failure over an open field with a crowded parking lot 200 feet beyond. What is the appropriate response?

A multirotor that has lost a motor is in a degraded and deteriorating state, and every second of continued flight increases the chance that it ends up somewhere the pilot did not choose. The controlling principle in Part 107 is that the operation must not create an undue hazard to persons or property, and the crowded parking lot 200 feet away defines what the hazard is. The open field beneath the aircraft is the safest outcome available, and it is available now — attempting anything else spends the remaining control authority on a gamble. Descending immediately also reduces the height from which an uncontrolled fall could occur. Each alternative moves in the wrong direction: climbing extends the time aloft and the potential fall distance, switching modes assumes control authority that may not exist, and flying toward the parking lot heads directly at the people. The instinct to save the aircraft is exactly what this scenario is testing.

Landing immediately in the open field uses the remaining control authority to guarantee the safest available outcome, while any delay risks the aircraft descending uncontrolled toward the crowded parking lot.

Part 107 prohibits operating in a manner that creates an undue hazard to persons or property. In an emergency the remote pilot in command may deviate as required, and the priority is bringing the aircraft down in the safest available area.

Land It Where You Are. The open field below you is the best outcome available, and it is available right now.

The instinct to preserve the aircraft is the distractor. Emergency questions always resolve toward protecting people over equipment.

• •Trying to save the aircraft rather than control the outcome
• •Climbing to buy time in a degraded state
• •Choosing a landing surface for the aircraft's sake over people's safety