By Tim Parsons-
A major air disaster was “narrowly avoided” over London when an Airbus had a near miss with a drone. . The drone was black and said to have been about 20 inches wide.
The Sun Newspaper reported that this was the third drone near miss within consecutive days at Heathrow airport. The drone was black and said to have been about 20 inches wide. This highlights an alarming level of negligence, yet no action has been taken against those responsible for huge security blunder which has occurred more than once.
On 17 July an Airbus A319 pilot saw a large drone pass around 100 yards away which appeared to be filming planes arriving at the airport. And the day before an A320 pilot saw a drone fly within 50ft of his wing tip as he was coming in to land. UK aviation laws ban drones from flying above 400ft.
The day before that, an A320 pilot saw a drone fly within 50ft of his wing tip as he was coming in to land and investigators said it endangered the jet and the people aboard.
In April an investigation was launched after a British Airways pilot reported that his aircraft was struck by a drone as it prepared to land at Heathrow Airport. The plane, flight BA727, was struck around 12.50pm after flying from Geneva, but managed to land safely at Heathrow Terminal 5. Why do this near misses continue to happen, without corrective action to prevent their repetition? Our lives are being put in enormous risk by very reckless individuals not being held to account, by the look of things.
Very Near Miss With Drone
The incidence raises serious security questions in the face of the fact this was not an isolated incident. The A320 travelling near The Shard had around 165 passengers on board and was making its final approach to Heathrow when the very near miss with a drone occurred.
A report by UK Airprox Board said the drone, which was black and about 20 inches wide, was spotted out of the right flight deck window at about 12.45pm on July 18.
“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 UKAB report said.
The airbus, which was flying at an altitude of 4,900ft at around 200mph, was said to have “narrowly avoided” the drone.
The crew said the drone had “probably” passed above the right wing and the horizontal stabiliser, located on the tail of the plane.
The UKAB report indicated that the collision had only been “narrowly avoided, and chance had played a major part”.
The UKAB report further considered the incident as one coming under the most serious category of risk, classifying it as Category A. The drone operator has not been located.