Was it a drone? British airways flight

Great, just about to purchase Phantom 3 Pro..... Will they be banned in UK? Anyone got any thoughts before I pay up...
 
Great, just about to purchase Phantom 3 Pro..... Will they be banned in UK? Anyone got any thoughts before I pay up...

Not by A long shot, they have to prove it was a drone, dji have set parameters for airports so a dji drone will always be "legal", I have a friend with an "open sourced" build it yourself drone, these may become illegal but not DJI the king of kings.


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I think the bigger worry is how it's gone from a story about a 'believed' drone strike to a discussion about terrorism, which are quite clearly two completely separate things.

The problem is the mention of the word terrorism, that will spell serious issues for the industry (and us) because it puts those thoughts into policy makers and the public's heads. I think public complaints about drones will probably shoot up now.

Will have to keep my eyes on this story because if it's found not to be a drone it won't be advertised.
 
Whenever someone approaches me and talks about my "drone" I tell them that it's a "quadcopter" not a drone. I explain that "drones" are unmanned combat planes. Makes me feel better if nothing else!!!!

As much as I hate to say this... you're wasting your time and breath. We tried to fight this "phrasing" for a few years now but every media outlet on the planet has "taught" John Q. Public that any small flying aircraft is indeed a drone.

Your best bet is to try and steer towards a more "technically correct term" such as UAS. It sounds more official and doesn't (as of yet) carry the negative connotation that the word drone does.
 
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This is true Al and because historically model airplane [proper] pilots flew responsibly and respectfully in reserved or otherwise controlled locations and conditions. So if it wasn't a bird then it most likely was a sUAS (multirotor) being flown carelessly or in the way so many of us have heard and read about.
 
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I just wonder how the pilot would even see a small UAV aircraft whilst travelling at 140kts.

In this situation I could believe it. However, to give you an idea of what is being reported, in the latest FAA reports there are such things as an helicopter pilot at 500' who saw a drone a mile away at 400'. This was 5 miles from an airport.
 
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I go out of my way to use the word drone.

Way too many words have already been seized by the word police and PC banned.
 
This incident is exactly why regulation, enforcement and accountability is required.

I would not want to be on short final at 200ft and have to figure out and deal with an engine explosion because some idiot has decided to throw a solid LiPo battery at my number 1 engine.

As we saw from our London filming poster last week and some of the thread comments there are plenty of people out there seemingly comfortable with taking the risk, if not the consequences.

Hopefully this will turn out to be confirmed as a bird strike or other event. However, it doesn't really matter as its already a serious drone incident in the minds of the general public. The perfect excuse for more regulation.
Drone strikes British Airways jet as it lands at Heathrow



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IMPOSSIBLE to enforce accountability....and I agree to fly you msut have it.....that notwithstanding you can no police it either.
 
People really need to calm down.

Guessing the agenda is to scare people from flying by pushing all the drone incidents causing fear and creating yet more control. You'll probably never see this video on the mass media helping to ensure flying is still safer than driving a car.


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From what they said this morning no damage was found on the plane . Then they said 3 planes spotted a "drone" hovering around JFK last Night .
 
People really need to calm down.

It's by no means obvious that an engine designed to withstand bird strikes and hail will fare so well against a 1.5 kg rigid plastic object with a magnesium core. That presents a quite different impact loading on the fan blades.

Aside from that, the engines are not the only vulnerable points. I would expect that such an object impacting at 200 kts would destroy an airliner windshield panel.
 
I doubt anyone here could afford the inspection and or repair costs should you be 'fingered' as the drone operator responsible for a collision.
So all the talk is really cheap here.
 
It's by no means obvious that an engine designed to withstand bird strikes and hail will fare so well against a 1.5 kg rigid plastic object with a magnesium core. That presents a quite different impact loading on the fan blades.

Aside from that, the engines are not the only vulnerable points. I would expect that such an object impacting at 200 kts would destroy an airliner windshield panel.
Exactly.

Gee people think it through.
Pilots hear a shot gun bang in the cockpit. Most will go instantly to training but 99% will likely interpret that engine bang as an engine stall, which it may not be.
All are trained to fly first, adjust / stabilize trajectory then monkey with the engine last.
Just because you see a test engine survive(recover) doesn't indicate a plane won't be in trouble or crash. Much depends on the variables like altitude, takeoff, landing, etc. and what the pilots interpret as the cause and their acts of mitigation(right or wrong).

Way more to it than just the integrity of an engine.
 
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Hmmmmmmm...... BBC website has an article on it shown below yet someone on the news has categorically stated as fact that a drone would stop an engine, they should get their facts right!

Of course this doesn't mean people should be thick, there's no reason to go anywhere near an airport, common sense tells you that, I just don't like scaremongering.

BBC article

Researchers at Cranfield University are engaged in a project to find out how much damage a drone could do if it hit an aircraft or was sucked into an engine.

"With small drones, the risk is not that great," said Dr Ian Horsfall, professor of armour systems at Cranfield. "It's not that different to a bird strike."

In mid-March, scientists at George Mason University said the risk from drones was "minimal" given the small number of strikes on aircraft by birds that did damage. Birds such as turkey vultures and geese that significantly outweigh domestic drones were the only ones that did significant damage to an aircraft, they found.
 
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I seriously doubt it was a drone, the media will report on anything that is popular and they are probably praying an airplane will be downed by a drone just so they can get their ratings up. Like Dirkclod highlighted, it was believed to be a drone. Until they find the wreckage I don't believe it. Why couldn't it just have been a bird? There are many more birds than drones out there.

I'm a news anchor here in the U-S. This crossed the AP just as most here have described it...the pilot THOUGHT it was a drone. No solid confirmation on that possibility.

News copy passed to me by an editor implied that a drone DID hit the plane...I changed it to reflect the facts and reported it that way to 500+ radio stations all night. Some of us still care about this profession. (BTW...in 1st reference for any story of this nature, I routinely change "drone" to "multi-rotor", "UAV", or "multirotor" drone to avoid misrepresentation)
 
How many firmware updates before that 120m height limit modifier is removed from the app. IF it does turn out to be a drone, and seeing it was over Richmond park it's not impossible, then those restrictions are going to end up enforced quickly.

Sad times :(
 

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