Originally Posted by
ZOOKER
There is also the possibility that after the collision with the aircraft, the RPAS 'residue' falls to Earth and seriously injures persons or causes damage to property on the surface. Pedestrians, vehicle windscreens, conservatory roofs etc.
A quick look on Youtube will reveal 100s of videos of various multirotors crashing back to earth intact due to a variety of malfunctions. It seems to me you're far more likely to become the victim of one of those than whatever's left after a >160kt impact with an airliner.
I operate a kit-built aerial photography quadcopter in the 1.5kg range and whenever flying I operate under the assumption that it might fall out the sky at any moment. This means never flying over anyone or anything which might be injured or damaged in a crash and a careful risk/benefit analysis in terms of what images I'm going to capture before operating it over an area where uncontrolled descent could result in a total loss of the craft, ie. tall trees, water etc.
IMHO anyone who doesn't follow this line of thought is foolish in the extreme, but sadly Youtube serves as proof that a lot of people would disagree.