Eleanor Service|
A police investigation is under way into a pilot’s claims that his passenger plane was hit by a drone.
The British Airways flight from Geneva was carrying 132 passengers and five crew when it was it at 12:50 BST on Sunday as it approached London.
If this claim is confirmed then it may be the first incident of its kind in the UK.
BA said it would give the police “every assistance with their investigation”. Police have said that no arrests have been made at this point.
The investigation will be lead by the Metropolitan Police’s aviation security unit based at Heathrow.
The pilot managed to execute a safe landing, after which the pilot reported the object – believed to have been a drone – had struck the front of the Airbus A320.
A spokesman for British Airways said:
“Our aircraft landed safely, was fully examined by our engineers and it was cleared to operate its next flight.”
A spokesman speaking for Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it was “totally unacceptable” to fly drones – which are generally used to capture aerial film or photographs – close to airports.
Steve Landells, a member of the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), said it had been “only a matter of time before we had a drone strike”. He announced that he wanted more enforcement of the rules already in place.
Flying a drone near an airport is already a serious offence, which can get you up to five years in prison. Rules also extend to forbidding flying them “beyond the direct unaided line of sight” of the operator or near buildings or crowds of people. Drones are also not allowed to fly above 400 ft (122 m).
This latest incident will increase the pressure for more to be done regarding drones.
Recently the US introduced a mandatory registration scheme so that they can trace any drone involved in an accident back to its owner.
Officials could also make it compulsory for drones to run geo-fencing software. This would stop them from flying into restricted areas.
A promise has been made by the Department of Transport to publish a strategy for unmanned aircraft this year.
Pilots have also called for the department to finance tests to find out what would happen if a drone was to be sucked into a plan’es engines or to crash into a plane’s windscreen.
This is on top of the British Airline Pilot’s Association noting last month that whilst the threat of bird strikes has been well researched, there is very little information on what damage a drone can do to a plane.
This whole incident comes after a warning issued earlier this year by the Head of the International Air Transport Association, Tony Tyler, that drones flown by the general public are “a real and growing threat” to civilian aircraft.
The UK Air Proximity Board – which is in charge of investigating near-miss incidents in UK airspace – said that there have been a number of serious near-miss incidents in the UK involving drones.
David Black, from Blackwing Aerial Services – a company that specialises in licensed commercial drones – said education and enforcement of the current rules were important, particularly for hobbyists. He said:
“I think a register is a good idea”
“With firearms it has shown it’s a good thing… but it has not stopped bad guys from getting guns. If you’re going to use them as weapons, bad guys can build them themselves.
“You need enforcement, but the problem with enforcement is that it costs money and people to carry it out…. There needs to be better technology for detection and avoidance.”
In some drones geo-fencing is an option. This is a database within the drone that will not let it take off if it is near an airport so that there is not chance of operators accidentally flying into trouble.
Mr Landells from Balpa said:
“With firearms it has shown it’s a good thing… but it has not stopped bad guys from getting guns. If you’re going to use them as weapons, bad guys can build them themselves.
“You need enforcement, but the problem with enforcement is that it costs money and people to carry it out…. There needs to be better technology for detection and avoidance.”
Nobody seems to be condemning drones outright at this point in time. People on all sides, from pilots to those working in the commercial sector of drones, seem to be just about agreeing on the fact that all drones need is a more enforcement of the rules. This will allow hobbyists to keep doing something they enjoy and will keep planes and people safe. This seems to be the perfect solution. Enforce the rules and everyone is safe and happy. But will that happen? Stricter enforcement of the rules will require funding, more money invested into that area. In times such as these though, money is in short supply and more money for drone enforcement may not be possible. A year from now though, when a drone flying into an airport cause a plane to be unable to land safely and people are injured or killed, will we regret not doing more now? Will we regret not stopping a potential threat? When all it took to prevent something bad happening was a little research in to how dangerous drones are to planes. At this point we don’t even know that. How much damage can a drone do to a plane? The very matter of whether we even need to investigate that is being questioned just now. The authorities will need to consider each question and each issue carefully to make sure they make the right decision, especially if these claims are confirmed and a drone did hit this British Airways plane.
