Drone incident Stories November 13
A drone that was flying at around 600-feet and within two miles of the runway, caused the Wellington Airport in New Zealand to temporarily shut down, causing flights to be delayed. The drone incident took place on October 11th, 2018 when a pilot spotted the drone as he was getting ready to take off with an airplane carrying 300 passengers. The shutdown lasted 40 minutes.
Drone incident Stories November 8
The crew from a Delta flight reported seeing a drone near Boston Logan International Airport. According to the Boston Globe, the crew spotted the drone about 15 miles northeast of the airport late Wednesday morning, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The Delta flight was on its way from Philadelphia and proceeded to land safely at Logan Airport. Officials said that the crew did not have to take any “evasive action” because of the drone. The drone appeared to be flying much higher than the 400 feet altitude limitation set by the FAA.
Drone incident Stories October 26
The man who flew his Phantom 4 illegally in restricted airspace close to Yellowknife Airport, has been fined $3,000 CAD and is grounded for three years. The drone pilot had pleaded ignorance of the drone rules four times. This led to the judge saying that she had difficulty accepting the plea bargain that was proposed by both the prosecution and the defense, as we reported earlier.
Drone incident Stories October 23
Admittedly not as crazy dangerous as the video with the helicopter (or other drone incidents) that we showed recently but still, drone videos like these show why stricter drone rules, remote id, and better education for drone pilots are needed to keep the airspace safe for everybody. Somebody by the name of ‘GS Wing Nut’ uploaded two videos to Youtube that show a manned aircraft, a Cessna according to the uploader, fly-by closely at dusk. The first video is named DJI 0679 and shows the airplane flying into view, the second video, DJI 0680, clearly shows the manned aircraft flying by at some distance. Both videos were uploaded yesterday.
Drone incident Stories October 22
Near-miss between drone and passenger jet over London
According to a report by the UK Airprox Board (UKAB), which investigates near misses, a drone was just 10 feet away from hitting a Virgin Atlantic plane over London. The Virgin jet was flying at around 250 mph at an altitude of 3,200 feet on its approach to London Heathrow Airport. The drone incident or near-miss took place on June 25th and is believed to be the closest call ever between a drone and a commercial airliner over the UK.
Drone incident Stories October 20
During the last two weeks, the video we reported on earlier, in which a DJI Phantom 2 is ‘fired’ at an airplane wing of a Mooney M20 aircraft during tests performed at the University of Dayton Research Institute’s Impact Physics Lab was picked up by major news channels, including CNN. The tests were designed to mimic a midair collision at 238 mph between a drone and an aircraft, however many people have pointed out that the test did not resemble a real-life situation and made it seem that drones are more dangerous than they really are. Now, DJI has responded to the test video as well and demands the video to be taken down. See their official press release below.
