A UK air incident board issued an official ruling on a near-miss encounter between a passenger plane preparing to land and a drone that seemed so imminent the pilot reflexively ducked beneath the cockpit window to avoid shattering glass from the expected impact. Not surprisingly, that close call was rated Category A – the highest level of risk of collision.
The review was published by the UK’s Airprox Board, which looks into “air proximity” incidents between different flying craft. It’s recent near-miss ruling concerns an August 28 flight of a Boeing 737 from Faro, Portugal, as it prepared to land at Leeds-Bradford airport with 189 passengers aboard. The report says the plane – believed to have been operated by low-cost UK airline Jet2 – was at “approximately 300-500ft… (and) fully configured and ready to land” when a drone appeared from nowhere. Startled, the pilot instinctively ducked down into the controls to avoid what appeared would be an…
