Icarus,
It appears from media reports that this drone was fully licensed and operating accordingly. Still this near miss happened. This puts the incident into another, to me more severe, category than thrill seeking toy drone operators.
EDIT: Please let me explain. A toy drone operator near-missing an aircraft might conceivably think of his drone as relatively unharmful. After all, he may have seen videos of airplanes subjected to birdstrike tests in certification, and may have the impression that an airplane is somewhat robust.
Whereas an operator flying a drone over a racecourse, presumably with spectators close by without any form of protection, surely must be acutely aware of the risk to unsuspecting third parties his operation entails. I'm not downplaying the risk of drones to commercial aviation, but there is an equal risk to other unsuspecting people as shown here.
Last edited by snowfalcon2; 23rd Dec 2015 at 07:11.