In January I had written a blog post titled Has a flying drone ever collided with an aeroplane? Well, it has. If you believe the pilot, a drone has hit a plane at Heathrow airport, according to this Guardian update.
The British Airways passenger plane landed safely in London after being hit by a drone, midair. The police are investigating the pilot’s claim. It’s weird that the area around the plane wasn’t being tracked by the airport authorities and it’s the pilot that reported to the police and not the British Airways.
The flight, BA727 was coming to London from Geneva with 132 passengers on board and 5 crew members. What a big tragedy has been averted.
People flying drones around airports has become a serious problem. The pilots’ association in Britain has called for an investigation into what sort of danger flying drones could pose to the aeroplanes landing at and taking off from the airport. The UK Airprox Board noted 23 near-misses between drones and aeroplanes in the 6 months between April and October last year.
Leave a Reply