Drone At Heathrow Flew Too Close For Comfort

While flying your own drone might be nice and fun, do bear in mind that there is an etiquette attached to the entire drone flying shebang. One of it is, do not endanger someone else’s life – let alone all of the lives on an aircraft, by flying your drone near an airplane. Imagine the guilt that you would need to bear if something untoward happens when your drone collides with a commercial aircraft due to your carelessness? A disaster was close to happen at London’s Heathrow airport, where it was a ‘wingspan away’ from collision with jet.

A couple of near-misses concerning drones and passenger planes at UK airports have been reported by aviation authorities, which is hair raising to say the least. Pilots have done their bit to voice out against drone use near airports, but the recent Heathrow close call was not as potentially dire as the one which happened in September last year where an Airbus A319 took off and saw a drone helicopter hovering close to the flight path. The drone actually passed less than 30 metres away from the A319, but unfortunately, the police were unable to trace down the drone’s owner.

Perhaps there is wisdom in registering the owners of drones, after all.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Robots
Tags: Drones