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A major air catastrophe over central London was averted “by pure luck” after a drone almost hit a passenger plane.
The Airbus A320, with up to 165 passengers aboard, was making a final approach to Heathrow over the famous Shard building when the “near-miss” occurred.
The aircraft was just 200m (650ft) east of the 310m (1,016ft) high skyscraper, which is the tallest building in western Europe.
The pilot spotted the black drone through the cockpit window.
The report says the drone and the plane were just 20m (65.6ft) apart.
It states: “Although the incident did not show on the NATS (National Air Traffic Services) radars, the Board noted that the pilot had estimated the separation to be 20m from the aircraft, at co-altitude, and that there had not been time to take any avoiding action.”
The crew watched as the object, about 50cm (20in) across, hovered over the right wing and then over the right horizontal stabiliser next to the tail fin. A report said only good luck prevented a collision.
The plane was descending through 1,500m (4,900ft) at 180knots – about 200mph – close to the 95-storey building.
(Photo: Getty)
It was the third drone near-miss in consecutive days involving airliners coming in to land at Heathrow . A day earlier, an Airbus A319 pilot saw a large drone pass 100m away down the left hand side of his aircraft.
It appeared to be filming planes arriving at the airport.
The day before that, an A320 pilot saw a drone fly within 15m of his wing tip as he was coming in to land.
Investigators at the UK Airprox Board, which examines near misses in British airspace, said July’s Shard case was “a very near miss”.
The report said: “The Board considered that the pilot’s estimate of separation, allied to his overall account of the incident, portrayed a situation where a collision had only been narrowly avoided and chance had played a major part.”
(Photo: Reuters)
The Board branded unmanned aerial vehicles a “genuine risk to flight safety”. They said people who fly them too close to planes should face jail. The Civil Aviation Authority says a drone should never be flown higher than 122m (400ft).
Pilots warn a drone could destroy an airliner’s engine or smash a cockpit windscreen. And the lithium battery could catch fire on impact.
The operators of the drones in all three incidents could not be traced.
UK aviation experts are carrying out research into the possible impact of a drone strike on an aircraft.
The Department for Transport ordered checks to be carried out earlier this year due to an increase in near misses in the skies above the UK.
But pilots warn that drones – which are too small to appear on air traffic control radar screens – could destroy an airliner’s engine or smash a cockpit windscreen.
Engineers also say a drone’s lithium battery could catch fire if it hit the nose or other softer parts of an aircraft and became embedded.
In Holland, one drone operator decided to ignore the law and fly their camera to 11,000 feet.
The four-minute video from the flight showed the drone’s ascent all the way up to 3.4 kilometers, or 2.11 miles, above ground (11,155 feet).
(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
At this altitude, the drone is flying above a layer of clouds.
Flight safety specialist Steve Landells, a former RAF and BA pilot, admitted: “Frankly it was only a matter of time before we had a drone strike given the huge numbers being flown around by amateurs who don’t understand the risks and the rules.
“Much more education of drone users and enforcement of the rules is needed to ensure our skies remain safe from this threat.”
High-end drones can fly up to and beyond 6,000ft, travel up to 50mph and stay in the air for 25 minutes.
They cost between £25 and £20,000, with electrical store Maplin alone reporting sales of more than 15,000 drones in the UK last year.
Last year Domino’s Pizza posted a video of a drone delivering a pizza,
and online store Amazon has looked into using the technology to speed up deliveries. They are also used by broadcasters such as the BBC for filming.
The US Air Force collected so much data from drones during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it employed 65,000 people just to process the information, while police in Texas use drones than can carry small weapons, including tasers.
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