Drone strike
 

Sky news are reporting that an aircraft inbound to EGLL from LSGG had a drone strike today whilst on approach

I'm surprised its took this long for this inevitability to happen.

According to various news sources the plane was inspected and cleared to fly following the incident.


Edit: looking at FR it could have been A320 BA727 which landed around 12:30 today. I'm not certain of that.

This particular incident appears to have been harmless.

But it does serve to further underline the issue that drones present a very real and immediate danger to commercial aviation.

Like I say, this incident was harmless, but it doesn't take too much imagination to consider what a person with malicious intent and an armed drone could achieve.

link to story on BBC

Drone hit British Airways plane approaching Heathrow Airport - BBC News

How can anybody possibly use this event as proof that drones are bad news?

We all knew that there would eventually be a collision. That is simply a function of number of objects in the air that are not de-conflicted.

We have now had the first event of it's type, and from all reports the aircraft was looked at and then signed off to continue.

This, if anything, suggests that the doom mongers are over-egging things.

Drone hits plane.
Plane not damaged.
Initial indications from an initially miniscule research set suggests that drone strikes do not hurt aircraft. As more collisions happen, I'm quite sure that eventually one will go down an engine. That will be more indicative of whether there is actually a problem.

What we need is not silly hysteria.
We need somebody to test engines against drones like we do against birds.

There are rules. Just no way of enforcing them.
That will change when someone gets hurt.

Tourist, what do you think would happen were a drone to be ingested by an engine?


What happened to Sullenberger's A320?


I concur that this incident doesn't demonstrate the capacity of a drone to bring down an airliner.


It certainly, however, doesn't demonstrate that a drone cannot bring down an airliner.


All it really demonstrates is that planes can collide with drones. Which is obviously a concern.


I see no hysteria here. There may be some in wider media obviously.

@Tourist


So what you are saying is that manufacturers need to spend huge amounts of money on testing for drone strikes to certify every single aircraft and engine in service now and in future?


I'm sure airlines and manufacturers will be jumping for joy at the prospect.

Have any engine manufcturers chucked one in to a running engine yet to see what happens?

I'm struggling to think of an airport anywhere in the world that involves atmospheric re-entry.

Tourist......

"We need someone to test engines against drones like we do against birds"

Will you be happy to stump up the money for this pointless research then?

The drone will have downloaded the impact sequence video to someone's iPad. That someone, (albeing stupid) will share it with others, just like rhino poachers do. It will be the drone operator's El Dorado moment. Within 2 days, I expect it will go viral and Plod will feel a collar in Hounslow.

Seeing as this is an encounter between an aircraft and an 'RPAS', is this officially the first mid-air collision in U.K. controlled airspace..........for a very long time?

If so, it's a sad day indeed.

A turboprop into one of these won't be pretty:

http://www.skycamusa.com/images/5d_drone.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/lpiSw0n.jpg?2

Tourist, have you seen the size of some of these drones? I would bet my bottom dollar that this was one of the smaller commercial drones, but some of the larger professional models would be like hitting a garbage bin.

I for one don't fancy going to work tomorrow and being the unfortunate pilot who hits a drone and becomes the first accident.

Peekay4 - I think it's highley unlikley you'll find a UAV of that kind in the hands of a nutter on the approach to Heathrow...

Nope.

Why should I?

I'm happy to have drones buzzing around, just like I'm happy to have birds flying around.
Those who regulate these things should do some scientific research about the actual rather than perceived risks.
Or, just wait and see.
If they are truly a big risk, then the tombstone imperative will pave the way.
My personal opinion is that these are in the bird strike risk category. All part of the natural risks of life.

The simple fact is that the score is currently 1/0 to the "drones don't damage big aircraft" point of view.

Watershed moment I hope. Gone way too far already.:= Time for a 100 mile(minimum) exclusion zone. Sooner somebody gets :mad: hauled up the better.