British Airway Jet Hit By Drone

Megalith

Megalith

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It sounds like we have escalated from spotting drones near airports/almost hitting drones to actually flying into them.

A British Airways flight has been struck by a suspected drone as it began to land at Heathrow Airport. Aviation police are investigating reports, made by the aircraft's pilot, that a plane travelling from Geneva, Switzerland was hit as came into the London airport at around 12:50pm on Sunday. Flight BA727 landed at Heathrow Terminal 5 safely with 132 passengers and five crew on board, police said. British Airways said the Airbus A320 was examined by engineers and cleared to take off for its next flight following the incident.
 
its a good thing it didn't get sucked into the engine...

but... i give it another 2 years tops before that actually happens..
 
So did the drone hit the jet? or did the jet hit the drone? Either way, should be illegal for any other aircraft to fly in the vicinity of an airport.

How long until someone straps some semtex to a drone and makes a "statement"?
 
sfsuphysics said:
So did the drone hit the jet? or did the jet hit the drone? Either way, should be illegal for any other aircraft to fly in the vicinity of an airport.

How long until someone straps some semtex to a drone and makes a "statement"?
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The airliner was on approach, so it has the right of way. I do not know the law, but I would assume that is illegal for any aircraft to fly in the vicinity of an airport without express direction from Air Traffic Control (outside of after hours cases for small airports).
 
Keep in mind that some of these drones are quite capable of carrying a payload of destructive material.

This is no laughing matter. This shit is going to get real, real soon.
 
westrock2000 said:
The airliner was on approach, so it has the right of way. I do not know the law, but I would assume that is illegal for any aircraft to fly in the vicinity of an airport without express direction from Air Traffic Control (outside of after hours cases for small airports).
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yeah there is def a law regarding airspace especially by an airport. they will most likely catch this guy next time if they already havent
 
You can kill a lot of people though this kind of shit-headery, that's why you don't get to fuck around with passenger aircraft, this moron's ass is grass when they catch him.
 
Jesus H Chrispy Creme. Now Drones are going to be banned across the entire planet because some dumb f***s have a single-digit IQ.
 
cyclone3d said:
And they are still calling quadcopters drones.
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We all have to deal with the fact that is the term given to them. Just like how ipads and other similar devices are called tablets. Originally those types of devices where called slates. Tablets were the full function notebooks with reversible screens. So that you use the pen to interface with them or could flip it around to have your keyboard. Everyone kept calling them all tablets and the name stuck. Same happen with drones. Name kept getting used and the public stuck with it so it is too late to try to change now
 
Looks like there was no debris found, so this way have very well actually been a bird.
 
Exavior said:
We all have to deal with the fact that is the term given to them. Just like how ipads and other similar devices are called tablets. Originally those types of devices where called slates. Tablets were the full function notebooks with reversible screens. So that you use the pen to interface with them or could flip it around to have your keyboard. Everyone kept calling them all tablets and the name stuck. Same happen with drones. Name kept getting used and the public stuck with it so it is too late to try to change now
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They were all "tablet PCs". Reversible screen models were "convertible tablets"; flat slabs were "slates". With the advent of ARM devices, they lost the "PC" and became just "tablets".

As for the conflation of "quadcopter" and "drone", it doesn't help that the public-at-large's only exposure to quads for years before their current popularity had "drone" in the title. (Parrot AR.Drone, available in the overpriced crap department of a Brookstone near you!) And I don't recall the R/C hobbyist community offering up an easily-digestible checklist for the media to differentiate them. At this point, unless someone with pull in the community and a PR department starts riding herd on the whole thing, quad enthusiasts are going to have to learn to live with their "drones".
 
westrock2000 said:
The airliner was on approach, so it has the right of way. I do not know the law, but I would assume that is illegal for any aircraft to fly in the vicinity of an airport without express direction from Air Traffic Control (outside of after hours cases for small airports).
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Oh I absolutely know the plane has the right away just like trains, but we always say the train hit a car/truck/person so makes me wonder if the drone was just sitting there taking videos or if it actively tried to get close or collide with the jet, not that it matters from a legal standpoint
 
Sigh, just how dumb can people be?

That said, the guy should either be charged with terrorism or attempt at manslaughter.
 
Sadly it's only a mater of time till one of these get's sucked into a intake and destroys an engine. Hopefully when that happens the plane can land safely.

Since you can't outlaw stupidity, I think the only prevention that larger, well funded entities (governments) could do is implement some sort of radio transmission sensor system that can detect drones operating in sensitive areas (airports) and then deploy anti-drone countermeasures (lasers!).
 
I just dont understand these people. Of all places to fly a drone, they just had to do it at an airport.
 
bunch of stupid turds will ruin this sport for every one. This is why I believe in much harsher punishments for crimes like cut a finger off for first offense stealing a hand for the third.
 
AK0tA said:
bunch of stupid turds will ruin this sport for every one. This is why I believe in much harsher punishments for crimes like cut a finger off for first offense stealing a hand for the third.
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I'm actually kind of in agreement.

On the one hand, Intellectually I know it's extreme, and that in reality the risk of a small quadcopter/drone causing a serious disaster is miniscule (outside intentional terrorist type stuff).

But on the other hand I feel like even a teeny-tiny minuscule, lottery win level, risk of lives being lost outweighs the value of: "Lol, I want to fly a quadcopter" by so many orders of magnitude that it's not even a discussion, and I'm fine with extremely severe penalties for this type of stuff.
 
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Tweak42 said:
Sadly it's only a mater of time till one of these get's sucked into a intake and destroys an engine. Hopefully when that happens the plane can land safely.
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I don't know how damaging a strike like that would be to an engine. They test turbines today by firing 8 thawed 24-oz chickens into the engine in less than a second.
 
What is crazy is that when you compare what these quadcopter pilots can get away with versus RC plane pilots can. I'm not certain of everything involved, but my best friend's dad used to build RC planes and fly them. Whenever he went to fly them they had to go to a certain location and if it was over a certain size or height get a permit. Again, I don't know all the details here.

The thing is with that airport, it is restricted airspace. You have to receive clearance to arrive or depart from the runway. Flying a drone into this space is strictly prohibited. As others have stated if this person is caught they're going to become an example.
 
LightningCrash said:
Maybe there should be some evidence of a crime before we go charging people with terrorism.
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What evidence are you looking for? For terrorism, yea, sure but... Manslaughter is an unlawful killing that doesn’t involve malice aforethought—intent to seriously harm or kill, or extreme, reckless disregard for life. So unless, someone is using the drone without permission, isn't that proof?
 
pothb said:
What evidence are you looking for? For terrorism, yea, sure but... Manslaughter is an unlawful killing that doesn’t involve malice aforethought—intent to seriously harm or kill, or extreme, reckless disregard for life. So unless, someone is using the drone without permission, isn't that proof?
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"isn't that proof?" Isn't what proof? What evidence is there in the BA incident?
 
Twisted Kidney said:
You can kill a lot of people though this kind of shit-headery, that's why you don't get to fuck around with passenger aircraft, this moron's ass is grass when they catch him.
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Yup.

THIS kind of IDIOTIC BS is why I miss the good-old days of RC aircraft. It took someone with a fair bit of building skill to put together an RC airplane or helicopter. Because of limited tech, you HAD to keep the thing nearby, it was all direct manual control with only the most primitive of mixers/computers, so if things went foobar your cherished toy you spent a week building and hundreds of USD on was gone. You had to have manners and be in touch with others so as to not crosstalk your controllers/receivers on the same frequency. The hobby requiring brains, meant that the people into RC had the sense to stay the hell away from other people's houses as well as commercial aviation....Or learn all of that in an expensive life lesson real quick.


The now simple stupid ease of buying an appliance and being a complete f'ing idiot, with no need to understand a damned thing of how any of it works, with no need for sense, or skill, has gone too far.


And yes....GET OFF MY LAWN.
 
This is going to start a arms/drone race.

Drone operators operate near airport, airport gets their own drones or anti-drone deterrents to attack personal drones, etc.

 
Wyodiver said:
Keep in mind that some of these drones are quite capable of carrying a payload of destructive material.

This is no laughing matter. This shit is going to get real, real soon.
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I'm seriously curious how it hasn't happened yet. The newer drones are extremely easy to fly, can move at great speeds, and can carry a decent payload (especially if it's a one way payload).
 
It's too bad there are assholes who take something fun and turn it into a big regulation nightmare.
 
LightningCrash said:
I don't know how damaging a strike like that would be to an engine. They test turbines today by firing 8 thawed 24-oz chickens into the engine in less than a second.
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Those are thawed chickens. Flesh and bone does not have the strength of metal that would be present on a drone. Even if the drone were 90% foam and plastic, you still have to contend with the metal in the motors and the remote chance the Lithium-ion batteries didn't cause a secondary explosion. I'm sure any modern turbofan could chew through it, but it will need a complete teardown afterwards.

I doubt a small drone would cause immediate catastrophic failure of the engine, but any loss of power on landing and takeoff has the potential to be catastrophic to the rest of the aircraft.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Those are thawed chickens. Flesh and bone does not have the strength of metal that would be present on a drone. Even if the drone were 90% foam and plastic, you still have to contend with the metal in the motors and the remote chance the Lithium-ion batteries didn't cause a secondary explosion. I'm sure any modern turbofan could chew through it, but it will need a complete teardown afterwards.

I doubt a small drone would cause immediate catastrophic failure of the engine, but any loss of power on landing and takeoff has the potential to be catastrophic to the rest of the aircraft.
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What conditions mandate a teardown of the turbine? Have you ever had to do a "tear down" on a turbine?

pothb said:
what?
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what evidence?
 
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AK0tA said:
bunch of stupid turds will ruin this sport for every one. This is why I believe in much harsher punishments for crimes like cut a finger off for first offense stealing a hand for the third.
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Or cut their balls off for peeing in public. The dick when he does it again.

Could you imagine growing up without a hand for tasting those olives in the grocery store?
 
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