Drone apparently spotted at 6000 feet height from a commercial flight

[Tomas Wangen]

All major norwegian newspapers currently reports (as a main story) that a commercial flight has observed a unauthorized drone-flight at 6000 feet over Oslo just outside a non-flight zone. Maximum allowed height is 120m/400 feet.

Rutefly passerte drone i 6000 fots høyde over Oslo: – Livsfarlig og strengt ulovlig

Now, I have no reason to doubt the pilot observing this, but what kind of amateur drone can reach this height and also be large enough to be spotted at such speed (I assume above 300 kph)?

This is certainly bad news all around due to the negative press (and potential major, future accident), so please respect the maximum altitude in your area.

 

[Nick Dalton]

Try Google Translate! Police are looking for the Queen.. [emoji23]

 

[Tomas Wangen]

Try Google Translate! Police are looking for the Queen.. [emoji23]

The word they tried to translate was "Person" (personen) but the translation certainly was a improvement

 

[steve langford]

Phantom 4: limit altitude of 400 feet

In Inspire and Phantom 3, max. altitude is "6000 m (Default altitude limit: 120 m above takeoff point))". Actually, you can set max altitude to 500 m . But if you read carefully Specs fort he new DJI Phantom 4, it literally says 19685 feet (6000 m) (Software altitude limit: 400 feet above takeoff point).Mar 1, 2016.

 

[Tomas Wangen]

Phantom 4: limit altitude of 400 feet

In Inspire and Phantom 3, max. altitude is "6000 m (Default altitude limit: 120 m above takeoff point))". Actually, you can set max altitude to 500 m . But if you read carefully Specs fort he new DJI Phantom 4, it literally says 19685 feet (6000 m) (Software altitude limit: 400 feet above takeoff point).Mar 1, 2016.

The drones will not work above 6000 m due to the low air pressure, this has very little to do with max achievable height from starting point (which can be set to 500m without modifications).

 

[outofcontroldrone]

Commercial airplanes fly like 500mph. How on earth could they spot a small drone in the air...I call B.S

 

[anotherlab]

Commercial airplanes fly like 500mph. How on earth could they spot a small drone in the air...I call B.S

Jets slow down for the landing approach, they heading to the Oslo airport in Gardermoen, they were probably going half that speed. Also in that article was that a tip called in to the police that reported that a high flying drone had just landed.

 

[jdpowell]

They should install dash cams so we could see some of these drone spottings for real.

 

[Meta4]

All major norwegian newspapers currently reports (as a main story) that a commercial flight has observed a unauthorized drone-flight at 6000 feet over Oslo just outside a non-flight zone.

In the past plane pilots reported UFOs all the time.
No-one took them very seriously.
Now they report drones (because they read reports like this one) and everyone believes they must have seen a drone.
Because we know that drones are real but flying saucers aren't.
Here are a few reports from England with high altitude reports shaded:
ANything is possible ... but very few of these were drones.

 

[Meta4]

Commercial airplanes fly like 500mph. How on earth could they spot a small drone in the air...I call B.S

At 6000 feet a jet would be travelling at about 270 knots on descent or 240 knots in a climb.
Depending on the viewing angle, getting a good view is quite possible at that speed.
Pilots can see things off in the distance, not just as it zips past their windscreen.

 

[KennyJr]

Is that 6000 feet ASL or AGL? If I were to set the max altitude to 500 meters I could fly to 1640 feet AGL. The elevation of the local airport is 2284 feet so I could fly to an altitude of 3924 feet ASL if I took off from the airport.

Denver airport sits at an elevation of 5430 feet. Taking off from there I could theoretically reach 7070 feet ASL. Depending on the elevation of the take off point 6000 feet above sea level is possible.

 

[Tomas Wangen]

Is that 6000 feet ASL or AGL? If I were to set the max altitude to 500 meters I could fly to 1640 feet AGL. The elevation of the local airport is 2284 feet so I could fly to an altitude of 3924 feet ASL if I took off from the airport.

Denver airport sits at an elevation of 5430 feet. Taking off from there I could theoretically reach 7070 feet ASL. Depending on the elevation of the take off point 6000 feet above sea level is possible.

The assumed takeoff point and surrounding area (based on the spot it was allegedly seen) is below 200 feet asl.

 

[N017RW]

Commercial airplanes fly like 500mph. How on earth could they spot a small drone in the air...I call B.S

I apply a fair amount of skepticism to many things in life...
So, What is your experience and/or training in these situations?

I'm just trying to ascertain the reliability of your statement.

At this time I'm leaning towards conjecture and assumption is the basis of it.

 

[anotherlab]

Is that 6000 feet ASL or AGL? If I were to set the max altitude to 500 meters I could fly to 1640 feet AGL. The elevation of the local airport is 2284 feet so I could fly to an altitude of 3924 feet ASL if I took off from the airport.

Denver airport sits at an elevation of 5430 feet. Taking off from there I could theoretically reach 7070 feet ASL. Depending on the elevation of the take off point 6000 feet above sea level is possible.

Oslo is a coastal city. In this case ASL = AGL

 

[Erised]

Do UFO's have drones now? I bet they don't have props, and I want one.

 

[FatherXmas]

Commercial airplanes fly like 500mph. How on earth could they spot a small drone in the air...I call B.S

Exactly!

 

[Meta4]

Exactly!

See post #10

 

[Technical Bob]

Im calling bull on the it being that high,
If the Mavic can only reach 2000 mtr, how can even a P4 reach so much higher ?

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[Meta4]

Im calling bull on the it being that high,
If the Mavic can only reach 2000 mtr, how can even a P4 reach so much higher ?

I didn't see anyone saying a P4 could go higher than 2000 metres (6560 feet)
But if you took a Phantom up that high it would take 6.7 minutes to get there.
You'd also have to fly out quite a way because you'd have signal issues with the drone straight above you after about 300 metres (or less).
If you did get up there, you would quite likely have issues with very strong winds that could well blow your Phantom away.
The temperature up there would be approx 3.5°F/1,000 ft (=21°F) less than on the ground which could be a worry for your battery if it was a cool day on the ground.
And then if all went well and you had no malfunctions and caused no serious incidents, you'd need 11.1 minutes for the descent.
That's a minimum of 18 minutes just for the up and back if there were no problems.