Slashdot Mirror
African Airline Reports Drone Collision With Passenger Jet (airlive.net)
McGruber writes:
Airlive is reporting that a drone collided with a Boeing 737-700 as it was on approach to Tete, Mozambique airport on Thursday. The 737 landed safely, but the right-hand side of the nose dome and fuselage were badly damaged.
The plane was carrying 80 passengers and a crew of 6, according to the Aviation Herald, which has more pictures of the damaged nose dome. "The crew heard a loud bang," they report, adding that "no abnormal indications followed. The crew, suspecting a bird strike, continued the approach for a safe landing." But USA Today notes that "While pilots have reported hundreds of sightings of drones near planes, previous suspected collisions have been debunked."
The plane was carrying 80 passengers and a crew of 6, according to the Aviation Herald, which has more pictures of the damaged nose dome. "The crew heard a loud bang," they report, adding that "no abnormal indications followed. The crew, suspecting a bird strike, continued the approach for a safe landing." But USA Today notes that "While pilots have reported hundreds of sightings of drones near planes, previous suspected collisions have been debunked."
They may have been debunked but this one looks to be debris.
It must have been a big-ass drone to do that kind of damage.
Alt right trolls with tiny penises...
The crew claims it was a drone strike but there's no evidence given to support that claim. It looks more like the aircraft was struck from the side at low speed, possibly even on the ground. From an impact in the air and resultant debris you'd expect that the pitot tubes or static port would show signs of damage.
There have been multiple news stories of "drone strikes" that later turned out to be bird strikes. One turned out to be a plastic bag. Until they have some debris or other evidence that a drone was involved here, it could be just about anything.
So you're happy with the ones with big penises? You must be having sex with them.
Looks more like the nose scraped something on the ground and the pilots are trying to CYA.
Just ban these fucking toys once and for all, m'kay? Obviously people are too irresponsible to own them.
checkmate
http://avherald.com/h?article=... - also in africa.
http://avherald.com/img/comair... - this damage was done by a red billed kite impact.
Broadly similar amount of buckling, though in a different place.
There are a lot of large birds in Africa, and aircraft frequently hit them.
You're clicky link is broken, Mr. Coward.
Are you sure the pilot didn't bump into something while taxiing and covered his ass by claiming "Russian hackers", no wait, "drone".
Mother fuckers they were trying to bring that plane down.
The public statement released in Portuguese by the airline does not say anything about a drone. Get back to me when someone comes up with a squashed drone that has a paint match with the aircraft.
I don't know for certain what collided with that aircraft, but I know there are drones capable of inflicting serious damage during a mid-air collision. Most drones are small enough to present difficulty for airplane pilots to see them in time to take evasive action. For that reason, the responsibility falls to drone pilots to see and avoid other aircraft in the area. I'm not in favor of software restrictions that limit what a drone can do, especially because there are instances in an emergency where it might be useful to circumvent those restrictions. However, I do believe drone operators should have to undergo training in order to operate a drone, rather than simply buying one from a store, registering with the FAA, and then flying untrained and unsupervised. Those who genuinely want to inflict harm will find a way to do so anyway, but the majority of incidents are likely untrained people who are arrogant enough to think they can get away with breaking the rules. Ordinary people don't know what COAs, NOTAMs, visual flight rules, and see-and-avoid are. Education won't solve everything, but it's a lot better than what we have right now. We waste a lot of effort on rules that distinguish between commercial, recreational, and other drone uses. These are wasted efforts that don't address the real safety concerns. Get rid of stupid regulations and have some common sense rules to protect safety. Requiring drone operators to be trained on safety, NOTAMs, FAA rules, and how to operate drones responsibly is not an unreasonable burden on personal freedoms.
Average user bought drone are relatively light, and even calculating a rather heavy model, that still a magnitude too low to do such damage. On the other hand a rather heavy birds would do such damage, and it does not always leave blood and feather.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Actually, the damage pattern looks almost exactly consistent with a ground impact.
It is reasonably clear from the images that the impact came from the front right, not straight on, and any
drone moving fast enough to create that impact vector at approach speed would have punched straight through,
not made the distributed damage we see - this was quite clearly a low speed impact.
The pilots 'reporting a loud bang' on approach makes it sound like a good dose of arse-covering, something
endemic in Africa when costly damage happens.
You will note there is no evidence given of drone remains, etc. Something that would most certainly have been
chased down immediately if this was actually a drone strike.
A bird strike (which would do less damage that a drone of the size they are claiming) looks like this:
http://www.birdstrike.it/birdstrike/file/images/file/2012.06.05_birdstrike.png
Very VERY different.
all of that is stupid shit, and you know it.
It's not just the large birds that one has to worry about. All of the European Barn Swallows have migrated down here, and 3 million of them choose to roost at Mount Moreland -- which is around 2.5 km from and directly in line with RWY 06 at Durban's airport.
The airport authorities are well aware of the potential danger and have installed a specialized radar system solely to keep an eye on the birds during the late evening swarm. If the swarm poses a danger to aircraft, ATC will pick it up and can then delay departures and/or put arrivals in a holding pattern as needed. The swarm, from my own observations when last I was in the area, only lasts around 10-15 minutes.
The local residents have now developed this into a small tourist attraction, which is popular with both bird and plane spotters.
Sure. Small birds are a very different problem though - they may cause engine issues when ingested, but are not heavy enough even if a lot of them hit to do minor structural damage.
Why again there is no photo of a damaged drone? Is it so hard to make a photo with a smartphone or a camera?
I think it became a piece of a free advertising for airlines to claim a collision with a drone. The world wide attention is guaranteed.
The airline reported a collision with an object, "possibly a birdstrike or a drone."
There has been no confirmation that it definitely was a drone.
Simple - if they did strike a drone in the air, the cockpit mics will have picked up the noise of impact and the crews reaction/comments.
Unless of course they "forget" to pull the recorder and let it overwrite with the next flight....oops..
Bearing in mind this is Africa I somewhat doubt the former happened - far too much hassle for the airline.