Drone nearly collides with aircraft in London

An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or drone almost collided with an aeroplane earlier today over central London in what must be described as a ‘near miss’ according to reports.

The Airbus A320, containing over 150 passengers was approaching Heathrow Airport when the drone passed within 66ft (20m) of the vehicle.

The report, based on the pilot’s observations, coined the incident as a “very near miss”.

At an altitude of 4,900ft (1,494m), the drone was spotted from the right-side flight deck window.

The UK Airprox Board report said: “Members agreed that this incident appeared to be a very near-miss and that the drone operator should not have been flying in that location at that altitude.”

The incident certainly “portrayed a situation where a collision had only been narrowly avoided and chance had played a major part”.

While the owner of the drone has not been yet identified, it is thought that the risk posed to the plane and its passengers was of the highest level.

The threat posed to aircraft and airport alike by drones is ever-increasing and what is particularly dangerous is the idea that regulators, airlines and airports are not communicating sufficiently to pre-plan for an impending incident. Read more on the topic in our Discovering Drones feature (October 2016) with articles from Helios, Allianz and Clyde&Co on the subject…