Drone apparently crashes into plane headed to London's Heathrow

[Jeff7]

Or, ya know, maybe not.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...ave-hit-british-airways-flight-may-have-been/

...wow.
Both things are largely plastic, and probably white. Close enough. It's a drone strike!

We need people to be licensed before they're allowed to use plastic bags. They should have to go through plastic bag training and every bag should be registered.

And here we thought that the only use of a plastic bag was suffocating small children. Now they can also spook pilots and alter flight plans of commercial jets. They're just so darned versatile!



And here's the article I saw a few weeks ago:
Reported Drone Collision Was A Birdstrike
...though the opening sentence makes it sort of ambiguous.

Although it hasn’t been officially confirmed, last week’s reported collision between a drone and a Piper PA-23 was, in fact, a bird strike. Residue on the aircraft’s de-icing boot was analyzed by the Smithsonian Institution and found to contain the remains of a small, non-predatory bird, sources familiar with the investigation told AVweb on Friday. The NTSB has opened up an investigation on the incident but we weren’t given a specific schedule on when its findings might be released.

So be sure to strap a few fresh dead bird parts to your quad if you're going to be flying it illegally.

 

[CZroe]

Wait so now it was a plastic bag, and that plane never even crashed or killed anyone? Why was this even news?

...says the person who shared clockboy's non-news before all the facts were out. Just like clockboy, someone who didn't know better thought they MIGHT have a story.

Sensationalism. Offense. Fan the flames. Profit.

...wow.
Both things are largely plastic, and probably white. Close enough. It's a drone strike!


And here we thought that the only use of a plastic bag was suffocating small children. Now they can also spook pilots and alter flight plans of commercial jets. They're just so darned versatile!



And here's the article I saw a few weeks ago:
Reported Drone Collision Was A Birdstrike
...though the opening sentence makes it sort of ambiguous.
So be sure to strap a few fresh dead bird parts to your quad if you're going to be flying it illegally.

Minutes ago I was doing 80MPH when a large bird of some kind smacked into my passenger side window. There is goo splattered/smeared across my door and window which my passenger says is obviously brains. All I saw was I the black feathered carcass tumbling through the air behind me.

I think I'll report it as a drone strike.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Here's maybe the best part.

But following his comments today, Mr Goodwill also dismissed calls for tighter rules on drone use to protect against terror threats insisting current rules governing drone use were strong enough.

Yeah, laws against drones to protect against terror threats.

 

[Jeff7]

Here's maybe the best part.

But following his comments today, Mr Goodwill also dismissed calls for tighter rules on drone use to protect against terror threats insisting current rules governing drone use were strong enough.

Yeah, laws against drones to protect against terror threats.

Terrorists have also likely used plastic bags at some point in time.

 

[SNC]

Sweet! I guess we can remove all those silly restrictions on flying drones near airports now because it is perfectly safe. :thumbsup:

Your gonna laugh when you here what actually cause the crash! I wonder what restrictions should be created now?

 

[CZroe]

You[']r[e] gonna laugh when you he[a]r[e] what actually cause[d] the crash! I wonder what restrictions should be created now?

What crash?

 

[SNC]

What crash?

I'm drinking don't make fun!

 

[flexy]

The "drone problem" is likely closely related to the "shine laser towards airliner" problem, it's the problem of infinite stupidity of people. Someone with more than 20 functional brain cells doesn't fly drones where high air traffic is.

 

[Jeff7]

Here we go, this is why I thought it went in the cockpit:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/suspected-drone-hits-plane-landing-london-184845866.html

The photo there shows a plane with a damaged window.
Wrong photo?

One article shows that, while another says ""And indeed the early reports of a dent in the front of the plane were not confirmed - there was no actual damage to the plane and there's indeed some speculation that it may have even been a plastic bag or something."


???


Actually, that photo looks like an A380, a double-decker. The articles say it's an A320, which is a smaller jet.
...and another article says A380. 😵

So I think at this point all we can say with certainty is that an Airbus jet landed at Heathrow Airport.
(In a month we'll learn that it was actually an emergency landing of a prototype hypersonic jet and this was just a fabrication to keep people distracted while it was hustled out of there.😀)

 

[Carson Dyle]

Here we go, this is why I thought it went in the cockpit:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/suspected-drone-hits-plane-landing-london-184845866.html

The photo there shows a plane with a damaged window.
Wrong photo?

Yeah, boy. The collision was so hard and the window smashed so badly that the Union Jack came popping out. That's got to be quite a hazard to the pilot visibility.

 

[Red Squirrel]

It almost looks like the window is slid open... Maybe it was a hot day and the A/C was not working and they just wanted fresh air? 😛

But yeah it seems like a whole bunch of news agencies just jumped to a conclusion here and the information is super missreported. You'd think news agencies would do their homework before putting out something like a plane crash. They have one job!

 

[Jeff7]

Yeah, momentary brain lapse. I briefly forgot that news articles these days will show photos that have only a tenuous relevance to the article. Gone are the days of simple point-and-shoot film cameras, when it was cheap and easy to develop a whole roll of film.
Taking pictures nowadays is extremely expensive and difficult.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Yeah, momentary brain lapse. I briefly forgot that news articles these days will show photos that have only a tenuous relevance to the article. Gone are the days of simple point-and-shoot film cameras, when it was cheap and easy to develop a whole roll of film.
Taking pictures nowadays is extremely expensive and difficult.

How do you know that isn't a photo taken of that flight, ten minutes after it landed? If was hit by a fucking PLASTIC BAG! Do you expect to see broken glass and exposed wiring?

 

[Brian Stirling]

Drones are the current go to story for the media that depends on sensationalizing most everything. But, that tactic works as many here jumped to the same conclusions the media would like you to -- perfect little lambs.

Not long ago a helicopter pilot near LA I think reported he'd hit a drone and this particular drone must have been part cyborg as they found blood and feathers.

Pilots of all descriptions hate that there are drones and would love to have them banned. Better to kill off the competition before it threatens your job.

That is not to say a drone, particularly the larger ones, can't bring a commercial AC down though the odds are really slim. If a drone were to hit the prop of a civil AC it would likely cause the loss of the prop and therefore thrust and that could be a life threatening thing. Similarly, if a drone hits the rotor of a helicopter then the odds are high that the rotor will be destroyed and as there's no way to safely land a helicopter without a rotor the pilot and crew would almost certainly die. There are real threats and the biggest in my view is to helicopter pilots.

The FAA has an app for drone pilots called "B4UFLY" and it checks the area you wish to fly against the known no-fly zones and issues a go/no-go on the flight. Additionally, many drone makers are including geo-fencing into the drone firmware that prohibits flying within the many no-fly zones that now exist. There are, of course, older drones without the capability to do this, but overt time they will be crashed and taken out of service -- sooner or later most drones will bite the dust.

So, there is a large number of people from pilots to those that follow the sensationalistic reports from the media that would be OK with banning drones, but that would be very bad. There are many things that a drone can do better than any other tool and many things the can only be done by drones. In addition, there are tasks that are now done by helicopters, things like SAR, that will ultimately be better done by drones.

If a fleet of a dozen or so drones with FLIR were in use in upsate NY last summer it's very likely the two BG's that escaped from Dannemora prison would have been found withing a couple days. Even more importantly, being able to find someone lost in the desert or while hiking and being able to do that within one day will save lives. Add in bridge inspection and wind turbine inspection and a whole host of survey tasks that can be done by drones for a small percentage of what it would cost to do by helicopter. Any wonder what the real reason so many pilots want them banned?


Brian

 

[Zack89]

Luckily no casualties.

 

[CZroe]

It almost looks like the window is slid open... Maybe it was a hot day and the A/C was not working and they just wanted fresh air? 😛

But yeah it seems like a whole bunch of news agencies just jumped to a conclusion here and the information is super missreported. You'd think news agencies would do their homework before putting out something like a plane crash. They have one job!

Where did anyone "put out something like a plane crash?" Reading comprehension, FAIL.

Wait so now it was a plastic bag, and that plane never even crashed or killed anyone? Why was this even news?

I should have addressed this when you first posted as if a crash landing were reported. Instead, I responded to SNC (see below).

When did you EVER read anything about a crash LANDING or deaths? Read the topic title again. Neither "crashed into a plastic bag" nor "crashed into a drone" should be read as "crashed the plane into the ground" with all of the death and destruction that entails.

You[']r[e] gonna laugh when you he[a]r[e] what actually cause[d] the crash! I wonder what restrictions should be created now?

What crash?

The news doesn't even have to try to sensationalize their headlines when we read them incorrectly and sensationalize them ourselves. 🙄

 

[John Connor]

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/0...lane-near-heathrow-airport-was-not-drone.html

 

[CZroe]

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/0...lane-near-heathrow-airport-was-not-drone.html

LOL at the embedded (and out-dated) video! The guy tries to sound like he know what he's talking about when he says that Lithium batteries are called "litho batteries" right before someone else calls them LiPo (Lithium Polymer).

 

[Red Squirrel]

Where did anyone "put out something like a plane crash?" Reading comprehension, FAIL.

There was another news article I saw somewhere else that said people died due to drone hitting a plane while landing. Can't seem to find it now, they must have pulled it off after finding out it did not happen.

 

[John Connor]

They throw frozen chickens at the engines during testing! Ain't no plane got time for drones.

 

[John Connor]

...which begs the question. Just what the hell was it?!

 

[Ichinisan]

...which begs the question. Just what the hell was it?!

Maybe you missed it?

It may have been a plastic bag.

 

[BUTCH1]

Yet a flock of Canadian Geese brought down a US Airways flight in 2009 after being ingested by the engines shortly after takeoff, causing both engines to fail.

Engine makers try to design an engine that will survive bird impacts but have not been very successful at doing so. A jet engine by nature has to suck in vast quantities of air and they also have to be made to exacting tolerances due to the high RPM's, centrifugal force on the fan-blades and high internal combustion temperatures. I've often wondered why can't engine makers design a "clam-shell" type of intake grill that would be deployed during takeoff+landing but retractable once your well out of the range of Geese, drones, ducks, ect. Just keep engine power down to around 70% (because I realize this contraption would lead to blocking a small amount of intake air) until you get to 10K feet. I don't think there is much (if any) bird-strike problems after that altitude.

 

[John Connor]

The issue with that US Airways flight was it hit a flock! Which is something not rehearsed in the sim at all. I have a strong belief that if it weren't for the fact that Captain Sullenberger having a hobby in gliders, there would have been a totally different outcome.

 

[Ichinisan]

The issue with that US Airways flight was it hit a flock! Which is something not rehearsed in the sim at all. I have a strong belief that if it weren't for the fact that Captain Sullenberger having a hobby in gliders, there would have been a totally different outcome.

If I understand correctly, he routinely practiced the exact same scenario in simulation (full loss of thrust shortly after takeoff) with the same aircraft departing the same airport.

Best possible pilot to have on the job in such an event.