Drone flyers are seemingly getting more ambitious and less aware of the law with each passing day. A drone struck a JetBlue flight attempting to land at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Monday. The Airbus A321 safely touched down in New York with no injuries to the crew or passengers. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident. This isn’t the first time that the agency has had to look into a drone intruding into regulated airspace and causing a collision.
The FAA stated that JetBlue Flight 948 was at 3,000 feet when it collided with a drone. In the vast majority of cases, consumer drones are restricted to a maximum altitude of 400 feet. The drone hit the Airbus just above the cockpit, but everything was fine. According to WABC, a pilot told air traffic control, “We collided with a drone back there in the turn as we were coming to ASALT, just wanted to pass to you.” After landing in Queens, the plane was inspected and then cleared to fly on to Los Angeles after no damage was found. I can’t imagine what could have happened if the drone was sucked into an engine.
Drones can be a serious threat in the sky to planes
This collision over Queens is very reminiscent of the idiotic incident when a drone struck a Super Scooper firefighting aircraft last year. The Canadair CL-415 was battling the Palisades wildfire, which torched 37 square miles of Los Angeles County. The drone collision damaged the plane’s nose and wing, forcing it out of service for repairs. According to the Courthouse News Service, the drone operator was eventually found and charged with a misdemeanor count of unsafely operating a drone. He pled guilty and was sentenced to two weeks in federal prison followed by a month of house arrest. That punishment was on top of a $9,500 fine, $147,000 in restitution and 150 days of community service. Seriously, don’t play with drones around planes
There was another incident in New York’s airspace that the FAA decided not to investigate. A helicopter pilot nearly hit a remote-controlled plane as he flew over Floyd Bennett Field. The former U.S. Naval Air Station is now a recreation area managed by the National Park Service. The pilot was startled at around 500 feet, but it shouldn’t have been a surprise because there’s a runway at Floyd Bennett specifically for RC hobbyists. The FAA isn’t going to punish people actively trying to follow the rules and enjoy the skies in a designated location, unlike those flying drones next to international airports.
