Heathrow Plane In Near Miss With Drone

An anonymous reader writes with news about a near miss between a drone and a plane near Heathrow. "An unidentified drone came close to hitting a plane as it landed at Heathrow, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has confirmed. An Airbus A320 pilot reported seeing a helicopter-style drone as the jet was 700 feet off the ground on its approach to the runway at 1416 GMT on 22 July. The CAA has not identified the airline or how close the drone came to the plane, which can carry 180 people. It gave the incident an 'A' rating, meaning a 'serious risk of collision'. This is the highest incident rating the CAA can give. Investigators were unable to identify the drone, which did not appear on air traffic control radar and disappeared after the encounter."

Comments

Re:Panic!

[skegg]

10kg aircraft "threatens" airbus a320. Sure.

Yes, it IS a threat. And a responsible person wouldn't be flying these things where they can put other people's lives at risk.

Might've been a bird, and those don't come with radio control.

Yet airports DO take measures to discourage birds from being in their vicinity. Now, most birds generally don't fear fines and prison sentences, so the measures usually take the form of: (i) changing the environment, to make it less appealing -- removing surrounding trees, food sources, etc; (ii) trained birds of prey; (iii) sound-generating devices.

Why do we hear about incidents with drones but not about incidents with RC aircraft?

RC aircraft have historically been used by a small number of (responsible) hobbyists. Drones are becoming more widespread, and their owners are starting to include idiots.

It's a shame that some idiots are behaving this way. I say release the falcons on them!

Re:It won't be long

[ColdWetDog]

Really now? You trust a some random moron who's motivation and skills are complete unknowns? You have a higher opinion of mankind than I.

Yes, it's unlikely that a small drone will crash a commercial jet. No, it's not impossible at all.

Re:It won't be long

[Half-pint HAL]

Stop being stupid. There is a ton of risks to flying airplanes that are relevant, this is _not_ one of them.

It is an avoidable risk, in that we can tell idiotic humans to stop flying quadcopters near planes, you fools! Unfortunately, geese and other dumb animals cannot understand us when we tell them this, but humans do... and then choose to ignore it.

These people are presumably buzzing planes on purpose as a "how close can I get" thrill, or to get close-up footage of planes. These are not valid reasons to wilfully and knowingly risk the safety of an aircraft and its passengers. There are laws with names like "reckless endangerment" for this sort of thing....