Looks like it happened again.
An Airbus 320 passenger plane with 230 passengers aboard nearly collided with a drone. The drone was apparently close enough to the plane to cause serious damage if it did hit. The incident happened at 7,000 feet in the air, whereas recreational drones are only limited to 400 feet. This means that the drone and its owner intentionally flew outside its boundaries. The drone apparently got as close as 10 feet from the plane. A collision at that elevation would have been incredibly catastrophic for the people on board.
Luton Airport Incident:
The incident happened after the Airbus plane took off at the Luton Airport in England. The incident sparked a Category A classification within the air safety staff on site. This means that it was a top priority and posed serious risk for collision.
The drone and its user broke several laws in this incident. One, as mentioned above, recreational drones can only go up to 400 feet. Another is that drones cannot fly within the bounds of an airport. This rule also includes areas with high air traffic, as well as emergency situations which require aerial coverage. Putting a drone inside these airspaces would create risk on incoming aircrafts. This would create a conundrum; either they risk coming in or they have to wait until the drone leaves the area.
This would take time to process, and delays occur. Usually, airports with these kinds of incidents hold out on newer planes taking off. They also redirect traffic, sending landing planes to other nearby airports.
By the time the plane spotted the drone, it was already too late to maneuver out of the way. That is the case for most of these near-misses. Drones, being small and are usually white in color, are incredibly hard to spot while on the air. This means that unless they see it at a safe distance, they can only hope that the drone misses the plane.
With increasing number of incidences on airports worldwide, we may yet to hear the last of this.
