Air Traffic Control Developmental
Situational Awareness; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Ground Conflict; Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Incursion Runway
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors; Company Policy; Procedure
I was working the positions of Local and Ground combined. In the tower was another controller working Flight Data Clearance Delivery and he was the Tower CIC as well. There was a significant amount of flow programs being utilized which caused extra workload for the Flight Data position and for myself on the Ground control frequency. On tower frequency was 5 aircraft in the pattern with one of the aircraft being a drone remote piloted aircraft. This is not a normal operation at Syracuse Tower. The average amount of traffic in the pattern is 1 aircraft. Not only was there 5 aircraft in the pattern; but there were multiple air carrier arrivals into Syracuse as well as another drone.In my opinion; for traffic that was on both the Ground and Local frequencies there needed to be an extra controller in the tower. Unfortunately; due to our staffing this was not an option. The actual event that took place involved Aircraft X who was in the VFR traffic Pattern. Aircraft X was instructed to follow the drone with its chase Aircraft. Aircraft X reported both aircraft in sight and was cleared for the option. Aircraft Y was observed landing while Aircraft X was on a 2 mile final. As Aircraft X touched down the drone was turning off of the runway. The drones have to taxi at a specific speed when they are on the taxiways and the runways. Their taxiing speed is significantly slower than any fixed wing aircraft. In my opinion; this was the leading contributor to the runway incursion.I recommend that if there are more than 2 aircraft in the pattern and a drone; there needs to be a standalone CIC or decombine Local and Ground frequencies. An increase in staffing would have allowed for an extra 'pair of eyes' for the operation. A standard strip marking procedure for pattern traffic would be helpful to provide a visual aid for increased controller workload. The drone should be taxiing at a much faster pace on the runways and they can slow their taxi speed on the taxiways. A procedure should be in place to address the runway compression that occurs whenever a drone lands i.e. approach separates an arrival further from the drone to make up for the times it takes to get the drone off of the runway.
Reporter said the Military is taxiing Military UAV's at airport for training then during the time of this report they were flying them in the tower pattern. Reporter advised that the military should be doing this somewhere else and not at SYR. Reporter stated the FAA is trying to figure out how to integrate the UAVs in a normal traffic pattern.
SYR Tower Controller reported a runway incursion due to the MQ-9 UAV taxiing too slow and an arrival landing on the runway while the drone was still exiting.