Two pilots were left stunned after their passenger jet narrowly missed a large drone near Heathrow airport.
The report says the drone came within meters of crashing into an A320 passenger plane while they were approaching the west London airport.
They spotted the flying object as they came into land at the airport. They were shocked since they were flying at 10,000 feet and the plane had just started its descent. The gadget had multiple arms and up to eight rotors passing below the plane’s right wing. Both pilots just exclaimed: ‘Was that a drone? At 10,000 feet!’
After the incident, one of the pilots said there was no time to react as the separation between the two crafts was 100 feet vertically and 656 feet horizontally. There was nothing to do but to watch the flying object for around five seconds as it was passing down the right side of the plane, according to the report.
Police officers and authorities at the airport were alerted to the near-miss, but the flying object operator could not be traced.
Four near-misses between aircraft and drones were reported in one month. The UK Airprox Board concluded that ‘safety was not assured’ during the incidents and determined the risk to be the second most serious category.
According to Civil Aviation Authority rules, drones must not be flown near airports or above 400 feet. In November, CAA even launched a website where it published the so-called drone code, a revised code of conduct for drones, called the drone code. Mandatory registration for new drones is being considered by ministers to crack down on reckless users as part of the Department for Transport policy on improving drone safety. The authorities hope the scheme could help them identify the owners of drones flown illegally.
According to www.standard.co.uk.
