Why do drones keep nearly crashing into airplanes?
Disaster was just a few feet away when a British Airways jet carrying 180 passengers narrowly avoided a mid-air collision with a drone.
It may be one of the closest ever near misses between a BA jet and an illegally-flown drone, but it is not the first time this has happened.
London Stansted, one of the UK’s busiest airports, was branded a ‘UFO hotspot’ earlier this year.
A Freedom of Information Request (FOI) revealed numerous incidents where airplanes came within just a few feet of colliding with objects flying near its airspace.
In one incident, a unidentified object flew as close as 20 metres to a Ryanair flight taking off from the airport.
Fortunately the pilot spotted the object, which had not registered on the plane’s drone-monitoring equipment.
Other airports have faced similar problems.
Another BA flight, carrying 242 passengers at 270mph, came within feet of an illegal drone after taking off from Heathrow Airport in July last year.
The year before, an easyJet flight with 180 people on board nearly crashed with an ‘unidentified flying object’ believed to be a drone over the UK coast.
‘We very nearly just hit a drone’, the captain told air traffic controllers, ‘We’re talking less than 10ft.’
Flights were diverted and all of Gatwick’s runways were closed after a suspected drone was spotted flying in the area in May last year.
A spokesperson for Gatwick Airport said: ‘Passenger safety is the airport’s absolute priority and – following established procedures – operations at London Gatwick were suspended temporarily.’
Between December 19 and 21, 2018, hundreds of flights were cancelled at Gatwick due to drone sightings close to the runway.
Two people were arrested in connection with the incident, but both were released without charge.
What is the law on flying drones near airports and airplanes?
Penalties for violating laws on flying drones could land you in prison with your drone confiscated.
But what are the rules?
You should ‘never fly a drone near an airport or airfield or close to aircraft’, according to the Ministry of Defence.
This is because you could ‘endanger the safety of aircraft in flight’, which is a criminal offence.
It is illegal to fly drones within 1km of an airport, and the drone must be within 500m of the pilot, and always within their line of sight.
You might be able to get an exception to some of this if you have permission to fly in an airport’s restriction zone, according to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
Even so, you must never fly a drone more than 120 metres, or 400ft, above the surface.
Generally you must register your drone with the CAA before you’re legally allowed to fly it.
This is always the case for drones weighing 250g or more, or drones with a camera.
If it weighs 250g or more, you also need to a pass a test and get a flyer ID from the CAA.
Why do drones keep nearly colliding with airplanes?
Given how many hundreds of passengers have been aboard flights that narrowly missed a collision with a drone, it’s either a miracle or down to pilots’ skill that no one has died.
But despite the streak of good luck, why does this keep happening?
It’s hard to stop drones from flying in an area where other aircraft are operating.
Prisons have explored technology that jams radio signals in an attempt to curb the use of drones to deliver drugs to inmates.
But doing so at an airport without interfering with the communications systems of the airplanes they’re trying to protect would be tricky if not impossible, The Guardian reported.
While manufacturers do sometimes programme drones to prevent them from flying in restricted airspace, anyone with enough know-how or money can disable this.
This leaves authorities with rather rudimentary tools to keep passengers and airplanes safe.
Either they catch the illegally-flown drones with nets, or simply shut down airport operations until the drone has flown away.
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