Possible drone strike - forced landing and crash - Waihi in NZ
 

All - not confirmed, but suspicious - and dramatic photos of injuries.
Veteran TV journalist Rod Vaughan says drone may have hit his plane before crash - NZ Herald
Rod Vaughan's second time having blood drawn due to aviation related activities.
The first being punched by NZ property magnate Bob Jones, when Vaughan landed a Squirrel near a trout stream and ruined Jones' fishing trip!

A small low flying drone that managed to miss both of their heads as it passed through the cabin and out the back window. The drone, then continued on its merry way back to the owner.

As much as I despise the way drones are operated and unregulated, I highly doubt this was caused by a drone.

Jones was somewhat of a pugilist at the time of Vaughan's earlier stoush, I'd have thought he'd have been aware of that back then....

... as for this time round, it seems a fair leap to what he's saying, if there's no evidence. Equally it could have been a flying pig he ran into :ouch:

I should think a drone, if that was the reason, would have left some alien plastic around, or some identifiable witness marks? The pig would have just enjoyed the scratch and carried on its way...

FP.

Perhaps this reporter is trying to find a story where there isn't one.

Not the first time a windscreen of a A22 Foxbat has blown in for no apparent reason, (apart from tiny fractures around the windscreen bolt holes).

The Foxbat, like many LSA have very thin windscreens.

Normal weight saving measures to fit in the arbitrary, 600kg LSA rules.

A drone would (probably) have been seen, even momentarily, had it indeed hit the windscreen, and surely would have left at least some obvious trace within the cockpit... I'm inclined to agree with Acrosport II above, I suspect the windscreen failed on its own so to speak.

"Something has hit it and that something is pretty heavy, the windscreen is 4-5mm thick and it has imploded," McChesney said


I think that is a big stretch.


"He said there were often drones in the area the plane was, as the large open pit mine was a popular spot to photograph. "I would says there's a drone up there every day at some time.""


Probably operating legally then - but why were you in the area you knew they were?


Although he did not see what caused the windscreen to shatter, he suspected it might have been a drone after discounting the possibility it could have been caused by a bird strike - there were no feathers or blood - or a shot from a high-velocity rifle.

Only because Bob Jones was found unarmed on the South Island.


If drones need more regulation fine but if this is the evidence for extra regulation, it is pretty poor infact more regulation seems required for the pilot IMOP.

Foxbat screens are not 4-5mm thick, they are 1.5mm