Earlier this week, a drone nearly collided with an in-bound LAX passenger jet at around 4000′ altitude as it made its approach to land. The pilot reported the near miss to the control tower, stating that “there was just one of those radio controlled helicopter things that went right over the top of us at 4,000.”
Unfortunately, stories like this paint a grim future for the free use of drones for enthusiasts going forward. There is already a hotbed of bad press in recent news – from crashing on the White House lawn to crashing on a Fox News segment about drone safety.
One thing is for sure though; there are plenty enough idiots out there who are going to ruin this for the rest of us. The FAA is expected to issue rules this year that specifically deal with drones that includes small quadcopters like the DJI Phantom.
[via FStoppers]
I fly the Inspire 1 and people ask me all the time how high it can go. I tell them it can go 400 feet high. While the aircraft can go much higher, I can only legally fly up to 400 feet. Above that is controlled airspace and as an air traffic controller I wouldn’t want aircraft to enter my airspace unannounced and uncontrolled. I look forward to the FAA introducing regulation that will require drone pilots to learn about airspace.
Can we have some proof that he saw this rc drone please?
I agree with Noel. I can’t see a bug that almost hits my windshield on the freeway. I can only tell if they do. If you multiply that by 6-10 speed, pilot must have bionic eyes . USAF jet pilot out of Mountain Home Idaho. had experienced a bird strike at 8,000ft AGL. When he landed they reported a golf ball ding in his vertical fin. Later on they found the Mooney that had its tail cut off. Really think its a stretch. My 2 cents