Midair horror as jet comes within 10 FEET of smashing into drone near UK airport
AN ILLEGALLY flown drone almost collided with a private jet as it approached London Luton Airport during the summer a recent report into the matter has stated.
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According to the report by the UK Aiprox Board, the drone came within 10ft of colliding with the GL600S bombardier jet. As the NeJets Bombardier was approaching Luton Airport, it almost collided with the drone which was flying at four times the legal height.
If the drone had smashed into the plane, former BA pilot, Terry Tozer insisted the damage could “have been really serious”.
The near miss is the joint closest ever recorded in UK airspace and was rated as Category A incident which carries the most serious risk of collision.
Mr Tozer said: “The damage could have been really serious.
“If a drone hit the windshield it could kill or incapacitate at least one of the flight crew.
“It could also be ingested into an engine with a similar outcome to a bird strike.
“These types of incidents are going to be an increasing problem.
“It’s a real concern for pilots.
“Stricter regulations have been brought in but you will always get people who don’t care about the rules.
“It’s very difficult to know how we are going to control drones.”
The owner of the drone is not known at the moment.
The luxury 14-seat £46million jet was flying from Nice to Luton just after midday on August 26.
Commenting on their report, the Airprox Board said: “The Board considered the pilot’s overall account of the incident portrayed a situation where providence had played a major part in the incident and/or a definite risk of collision had existed.
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“The GL6000S pilot reports he was inbound to Luton when he saw a drone moving west to east at around 4000ft.
“The drone appeared to have some sort of light source at the front.
“The size was difficult to judge but best estimate was 50cm by 50cm.
“It was estimated to pass within 10ft of the aircraft.”
The near collision comes amid the rise of near misses involving drones in restricted airspace.
Last December, Gatwick Airport was plunged into chaos after an unauthorised drone was detected near one of the runways.
The airport was forced to close between December 19 and 21 after the sighting.
Due to that, approximately 1,000 flights were affected.
In the wake of event, the Government announced a raft of measures to help the police deal with such matters this year.
The exclusion zone surrounding airports will now be extended while police will also be able to use fixed-penalty notices for minor drone offences.