IT WAS last year that consumer drones really took off. Around the world, perhaps 1m of the unmanned robots flew off the shelves in 2015. Now, any visit to the park feels incomplete without high-pitched whining overhead.
So it was to no one’s surprise when British Airways reported yesterday that it believed that one of its planes had hit a drone as it came into land at London's Heathrow airport. Although not confirmed, the incident, which involved an A320 en route from Geneva with 137 passengers and crew on board, is thought to have been the first of its kind in Britain. Few think it will be the last. There have already there have been seven “category A” near misses—those of a serious nature—in Britain in the past year.
Facts are currently thin on the ground. The culprit has not been found, so it is not known whether the person holding the controls was acting maliciously. But there are two distinct issues here.
The first is how to deal with owners who unwittingly endanger planes (or who believe that what they are doing is merely a lark, but don’t really harbour malice). The issue is not dissimilar to the problem of...Continue reading
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