Delta Flight in close call with Drone outside JFK

[Sammynels]

All the local TV channels, especially NBC-NY were all over a story tonight about a JetBlue and then a Delta Flight that called in a near drone encounter "100 feet below my right wing" on approach to JFK while passing over the mostly inactive airport Floyd Bennett Field in south Queens near the Rockaways.

I know the field, runways and old hangers are used by:
1) the NYPD Air Bureau for their police helicopters
2) Highway Patrol uses the old runways for motorcycle training
3) FDNY uses the runways to teach EVOC- emergency Vehicle Obstacle Course- for it's ambulance drivers
4) there used to be at least 2 Blimps parked that used that for staging before flying over events like the US Open
5) there is a designated runway for RC Airplanes with bleachers and a clubhouse and I imagine quad copters use that area too.

This drone was at ~1400 ft which made them scramble the police choppers looking for the owner. No word yet if they caught anyone. The videos of a drone they showed as filler in the piece were not not a DJI copter. They did show footage and audio from inside an air traffic tower where the planes landing after the one who first reported it were being warned of drone activity on approach.

This is exactly what's going to ruin it for the rest of us. I still haven't gone higher than 250-280 feet. I can't for the life of me imagine why anyone would want to go to 1400 feet. Seems pointless.
Here's the story...

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/loca...y-Hits-Unmanned-Aircraft-Drone-320331571.html

 

[LordEvil]

ABC showed a Phantom copter. They said it was at 1700 feet over a vacant airfield close to the airport.

 

[Sammynels]

That would be Floyd Bennett Field.
Google Earth Coordinates are
Lat 40°35'24.01"N
Long 73°53'27.50"W
It's 6.8 miles from the center point of JFK.
DJI has 5 mile radius no fly zone and from that perimeter the no fly goes up & out at 15 degrees to account for approaching aircraft

ABC showed a Phantom copter. They said it was at 1700 feet over a vacant airfield close to the airport.

 

[grrquadman]

I just had a conversation with my brother about this same story. I directed him to the DJI "Fly Safe" site, had him see how DJI has the "no fly" zones around airports and how our Phantom 3 aircraft are disabled in these zones.
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Hey, at least DJI is attempting to keep us alive here...

 

[RoyVa]

There is that 10% again that want to blow it for the other 90%.

 

[grrquadman]

+1
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Getting tired of all the bad press.
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One of the 90% - - -

 

[Chris Vedeler]

I hate to hear this kind of thing. People are idiots! There is no point in flying a drone that high. I think the 400 feet off the ground rule is perfectly reasonable.

This person is going to ruin the hobby for the rest of us.