Pilot claims quadcopter was “deliberately” flown at passenger plane

As if drunk passengers, extreme turbulence, volcanic ash clouds and terrorists weren’t enough, pilots now have to be on the lookout for yet another threat – unnmanned flying drones being purposefully flown towards them.

Such an event apparently occurred earlier this year, according to a report from the UK’s Airprox Board, which is responsible for investigating air safety issues in the country.

The report describes an incident from May of this year that has only just come to light. It says a quadcopter was apparently flown deliberately at a passenger jet as it attempted to land at Southend Airport, which is about 25 miles east of London. The unnmanned drone came “very close” to striking the airplane’s right wing and would have almost certainly caused a catastrophic accident had it done so.

The 75-seater AT72-500’s pilot described how he spotted the quadcopter as he was coming into land at an altitude of around 15,000 feet. The collision risk was assessed as “high”, while the co-pilot stated his belief that whoever was controlling the drone deliberately aimed it at the aircraft, because it approached from the right hand side before veering towards it. The drone missed the jet by around 25 meters.

A transcript of the conversation between the pilots and air traffic control, published by the Daily Mail, reveals there have been several reports of quadcopters flying around in the vicinity of Southend Airport:

AT72: ‘…for information when we were on the glide just about to intercept the glide er seen on the right side kind of er you know remote control helicopter er very small engine flying on the right side same altitude’

ATC: ‘That’s understood roughly what range when you saw that was it’

AT72: ‘Just before we intercept the glide was black and red’

ATC: ‘That’s understood er I’ll make a note of that’

AT72: ‘Was not sure it was you know a helicopter it looks like it’s a brand new thing that are flying around now on remote control’

ATC: ‘Oh a quadcopter type thing maybe’

AT72: ‘Say again sorry’

ATC: ‘Perhaps something like a quadcopter er we’ve had a couple of those around here er been reported’

AT72: ‘Yes exactly that’

ATC: ‘Understood’

So far, authorities have been unable to trace the operator of the drone involved in the incident.

Surprisingly, this isn’t the first report of a near miss involving drones and airplanes. Last May, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revealed a near collision between a drone and a US Airways passenger plane near Tallahassee Airport in Florida. FAA official Jim Williams said at the time the pilot came so close to hitting the drone that he was “sure he had collided with it”.

Before that, in 2013, the Daily Mail published nine-year old footage of an incident in Afghanistan, in which a Germany army drone came within less than two meters of striking a passenger plane carrying some 100 passengers.

photo credit: AK Rockefeller via photopin cc