A tragedy involving a British Airways flight from Athens to London was avoided in the last second, with the airplane narrowly missing a drone at an altitude of 9,600 feet, is revealed by a report from the Daily Mail.
According to the report, the incident occurred at 4:30 in the afternoon on January 3rd, as the Airbus A321 carrying 180 passengers was queuing up for final approach to landing at Heathrow Airport.
As per the report citing a UK Airprox Board report, the drone was found to be just 1.5 meters away from the aircraft’s wing and 9 meters away from the cockpit window!
It is noted that in the software of the drones there is a limiter so they cannot go up to more than 400 feet, but it is estimated that the user, who remains unknown, bypassed this restriction with an application and additional batteries. Authorities do not exclude the possibility that the drone operator wanted to fly the drone at such heights, 24 times above the permitted limit, in order to capture images of airplanes.
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According to the report, the incident is considered Category A, a category that includes incidents of high risk of collision. The report describes that the pilot “noticed an object to the right of the aircraft’s nose. It was small but had the shape of a drone. This object was above the right wing of the aircraft. The details were immediately transmitted to the control tower of Heathrow Airport, with air traffic controllers informing the pilot of the aircraft behind the British Airways flight”.
The pilot, according to the same report, assessed the risk of collision as “high,” noting that the object was “extremely close” to the right side of the aircraft.
“The Board considers that the overall description of the event by the pilot depicts a situation where precautionary measures played a significant role in the event and/or there was a specific risk of collision,” the report concludes.
From its side, a British Airways representative stated, “We take such incidents seriously and our pilots report them so that authorities can conduct investigations and take necessary actions.”
