Passenger jet landing at Heathrow feared struck by drone
A British Airways flight was struck by what is believed to be a drone as it came in to land at Heathrow airport on Sunday.
The aircraft, an Airbus A320 with 132 passengers and five crew on board, was examined by engineers and cleared to take off for its next flight following the incident.
A spokeswoman for Scotland Yard police said: “A pilot on an inbound flight into Heathrow airport from Geneva reported to police that he believed a drone had struck the aircraft” at about 12.50pm.
“The flight landed at Heathrow Terminal 5 safely. It transpired that an object, believed to be a drone, had struck the front of the aircraft.”
The incident is the latest in a series of similar incidents involving drones in UK airspace, leading British pilots to call for tougher regulation. An air safety report found four serious near-misses involved drones and aircraft last year.
Apart from Heathrow, incidents were reported at London Stansted, London City and Manchester.
While the most popular drones can weigh as little as 1.5kg, the fear is they could seriously damage a large commercial airliner if one were to fly into the jet engine.
The incident follows a warning earlier this year by the head of the International Air Transport Association that drones flown by the general public are “a real and growing threat” to civilian aircraft.
A spokesman for the UK Civil Aviation Authority told the BBC that drone users had to understand they were potentially flying their drones “close to one of the busiest areas of airspace in the world — a complex system that brings together all manner of aircraft including passenger aeroplanes, military jets, helicopters, gliders and light aircraft”.