Footage Reveals Drone Aircraft Nearly Downed Passenger Plane in 2004

Newly released footage, writes reader Wowsers, shows that in 2004 "A German drone aircraft was within meters of bringing down a passenger aircraft with 100 people on board. The link shows stills from onboard the drone. The incident had been hushed up for nine years, and is creating waves in Germany now the footage has been leaked out."

Comments

"and is creating waves in Germany now the footage"

[Anonymous Coward]

I have searched for this in german web pages. Beside aero.de and spiegel.de there is next to NO german web pages mentionning this and a lot of english pages. In fact it isn't even on google news in german...

Why do people online get so bent out of shape when

[interkin3tic]

people don't agree with their opinions on what is the "correct" way to do things?

Re:Why do people online get so bent out of shape w

[KGIII]

Did you ever witness the top-post vs. bottom-post Usenet battles? Those were fun. I'm a bottom poster though I snip. Well, no... I haven't engaged in Usenet activity in years.

Re:Who is in control?

[sabri]

This was a small, 88lb (40kg) drone, not a Global Hawk. $2000 would be a significant chunk of its cost.

But a small cost considering the danger of airborne vehicles prone to turbulence. If a flock of geese can bring down an airliner, a human constructed chuck of metal can do the same. Geese don't have transponders, but we can include them in our devices. Your argument is flawed. Even if the cost of the transponder would double the cost of the drone, it would still be worth it, considering the potential loss of life (and the associated liability costs).

Furthermore, if I'm not mistaken, mode S transponders are mandatory in all EU airspace at this time, but I'm sure some AC will be able to comment on that. It's been a while since I've touched the controls of an aircraft in the USSEU.