Canada issues report on police drone collision with landing plane

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has released its report on a 2021 collision between a Cessna 172N plane approaching the Toronto area’s Buttonville Municipal Airport and a police drone operating in the restricted airspace without the required waiver – an incident that sparked controversy when it belatedly became public.

The collision occurred on August 10, 2021, when the plane flown by a student pilot and an instructor struck a drone being operated by the York Regional Police (YRP) on a surveillance mission to locate a possible armed individual in the area. Upon landing, the Cessna was found to have suffered damage to the front left cowl under the propeller, while the YRP’s DJI Matrice M210 was destroyed. 

When news of the incident came out 10 days later, some social media commentators took issue with the tardiness of the revelation. They also criticized the difference between the apparent indulgence a police unit operating a drone near an…