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Drone Believed To Have Hit British Airways Flight 'May Have Been a Plastic Bag' (telegraph.co.uk)
Reader schwit1 writes: The drone that reportedly hit a British Airways jet earlier this week may have actually been a plastic bag, a minister has said. Transport minister Robert Goodwill admitted authorities had not yet confirmed whether what struck the Airbus A320 was a remote-controlled device. The collision on Sunday night is believed to have been at around 1,700 ft near Richmond Park in south west London, over four times higher than the legal height limit. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch is investigating, alongside the Metropolitan Police. But following his comments today, Mr Goodwill also dismissed calls for tighter rules on drone use to protect against terror threats insisting current rules governing drone use were strong enough.From a Quartz report: Motherboard's Jason Koebler dove into the data the FAA released last August dove into the data the FAA released last August, and found that, among other things, "a 'large vulture,' a 'fast moving gray object,' a 'mini blimp,' a 'red UAS or balloon,' and 'a UFO' were all classified as drones in the FAA's report." This led him to decide that, when it comes to verifiable sightings -- even from trained pilots -- "drones are the new UFOs."
Tho people think they mean aliens when they here UFO pilots reporting thing as a UFO just makes sense, it was flying and they didnt know what it was.
Drones disguised as plastic bags? What will these clever terrorists think of next?
Table-ized A.I.
If a terrorist wants to use a drone to attack a plane, what regulation is going to stop them? They already are looking at breaking murder laws, so why would they care about drone laws?
WE need a national registry of plastic bags! have licenses issues where all plastic bags should carry the license number of the person that owns it!
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
It's amazing how many of these "sensational" stories eventually (and sometimes quickly) fall apart. The race to be first post has really made modern journalism nothing more than a professional game of crying wolf. Unless there's clear video of the actual event happening, it's all suspect at this point, and even video needs to be carefully scrutinized in this day and age.
No tornado needed, just a thermal updraft. I routinely fly my sailplane to 10,000 feet or more on thermal lift...my area gets stronger ones than Britain usually does, but they have a very active soaring community too.
Ever see a dust devil? That's a thermal.
My city banned stores from giving them out a few years ago. It is a much more pleasant world without them. We allow paper bags, but the store is required to charge 5 cents each for them.
Before the ban, stores were practically forcing plastic bags on me, even when I didn't need them. Because clerks are lazy and distracted. Now, people bring their own bags most of the time, and if they forget it only costs them 5 cents. The streets aren't littered with an excess of bags anymore. The doom and gloom the store owners predicted? Never happened, the same as the doom and gloom business owners predict for everything else that involves small changes.
Ban private drones anyway! They take the jobs of good, hard working delivery drivers! They might be used to spy on children! They are technology and Google and Amazon like them, so they must be evil! Get out the pitchforks!
I propose that all plastic bags be registered with the FAA to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. If you are under 13, you must have your parents register your plastic bag instead.
Why would you want to fly a drone costing hundreds/thousands of dollars 1700 feet?
That is the part about all this Rogue Dronery the fact that these things are not cheap, why would you want to risk them for general hooliganism.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
i was driving near JFK Airport last weekend and saw a few kites up in the air that could have been around 1700 feet close to the final approach path for one of the runways.
I just got a load of drones from the grocery store yesterday.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Wait until announce that the "airplane" was also actually a slightly larger and faster moving plastic bag. . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
Yes, the headline treats fact as speculation: "Drone Believed To Have Hit British Airways Flight" [There is no reason to doubt that *something* struck the plane; only the drone-ness of the object is unconfirmed], and then speculation as fact "'May Have Been a Plastic Bag' (telegraph.co.uk)" with no evidence.
Would you like your drones in paper or plastic?
Updrafts can go extremely high. How high depends on various atmospheric conditions but 1700 is nothing even on a bad day. Just look at a cumulus cloud and chances are you're seeing the top of an "updraft". I've seen bags and misc light trash while flying around 12,000 ft before.
I was flying along the coast, just south of San Francisco, when a small dot caught my eye. Flying is typically 99% boring and 1% terrifying -- this was the 1% that day -- I thought it was another plane headed right for me.
About a second later, it was clear that it was a small balloon, and I flew right past it. Just for fun, I entered a 360 degree turn to see it again -- the fun part was that as I came around it was still caught in the vortex from my wing, and was spinning madly! I was surprised, as it probably took well over a minute to make the turn; I didn't realize that even 1,500 lb Cessnas would generate vortices with that much endurance. I treated big jets with a lot more respect after that.
I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.