[Closed] Drone strikes aircraft at Heathrow

Birds can mess up aircraft.

I'm perfectly prepared to believe that "drones" can too.

A ban on flying them near airports seems perfectly reasonable.

A ban on flying them at all would be extremely disproportionate.

aracer - Member

In the past you'd have needed expertise to build and fly

Not really, you've been able to buy rtf planes and helicopters for years and people have been crashing them and using them irresponsibly all that time. They're just getting cheap enough to be disposable/impulse buys for more people.

Birds, I imagine, have a natural survival instinct to keep away from an aircraft. Drones are being deliberately flown very near to aircraft. No doubt this is a major headache for police and CAA, there must be a huge area you can fly drones from along the take off and landing approach.

@Northwind I used to fly rc planes amd gliders and id say drones are mich more straightforward (somaccessible to idiots, cheaper too) and have gps inside so they can be accurately positioned on a flight path

wobbliscott I completely agree. The air industry is very good at testing thoroughly and learning from events by being completely transparent. I was just trying to make that point that, even with very thorough testing and design, things can and do still fail (i.e. we shouldn't be complacent).

you've been able to buy rtf planes and helicopters for years

Sure, I bought my first helicopter about 10 years ago, but that still required a lot of skill to fly - planes at the time not much less. It's only very recently the level of skills required has dropped significantly

I've thought about a drone but realised it would be boring

Birds, I imagine, have a natural survival instinct to keep away from an aircraft.

They probably do, but see the video above.

I imagine that, regardless of self-preservation instinct, it can still be tricky to avoid a massive jet approaching at 560mph+

gps inside so they can be accurately positioned on a flight path

I thought that DJI were beginning to put exclusion zones in their firmware so that airports are fenced off via GPS, but maybe that only covers US off the shelf models?

Race "drones" won't have GPS. Toys may or may not, but if they do, it's probably only for the hold and return home features.

No doubt a drone could cause some damage to a plane, but some of the birds in the vid above were biiiiig and solid!

Passenger planes only reach speeds of 500mph+ many miles above the surface of the earth - so not a big threat of a high speed impact. Military jets have a habit of flying very fast very low though - so there would be an opportunity for disaster.

Bottom line - given enough incidences, eventually all the holes in the cheese will line up and a "perfect storm" of aviation disaster will occur.

main use of GPS is not to make it fly a predetermined course, although I'm sure you could do exactly that if you really wanted

Yep - Phantom have the "Ground Control" app where you can plot a route using GPS waypoints and then just press a button for the drone to take off autonomously, follow that route, then return to base and land.

Watch this from about 22:25

Wonder what the effect of spraying a smashed lithium polymer battery all over the inside of a superheated jet engine are.
AFAIK the flame front is at about 2000 degrees and some of the surface temps of the metals are knocking on for 800-900 degrees.
You'd also have the combustion products of the CF and the molten aluminium/copper from the circuit boards to contend with.

I'd not fancy it, toy or otherwise.

how long before some terrorist idiot flys one with a small explosive device on it into a plate?

Registering drones won't prevent this, though, unless they're very law-abiding terrorists.

DJI have software in place that restricts where you can fly, but due to many owners complaining you can turn it off. I have a quadrotor and would fully support some form of registration.
I also think someone (CAA,police?) need to start looking on youtube a bit more. Many videos posted there are against the current safe practices as laid out by the CAA. There's always someone who's seen a video and tried to copy it. You can be sure someone, right now, is thinking how cool it would be to video a jet landing at Heathrow.

I don't understand how anyone can be taking the the viewpoint of "well a bird might hit a plane and we're ok with that, so why the issues with drones / quads (or whatever your preferred nomenclature is!)?

Personally if I'm in a plane I'd prefer if nothing hit it, especially something controlled by another human being. Simple point being that it might cause a plane to come down, even a 0.0000000000001% risk is too much, and frankly any idiot flying one close to an airport should be chucked into a padded cell. Same goes for the twunts with laser pens.

A guy I used to ride with used to throw the chickens (already dead, I hasten to add) at the engines for testing bird strikes at Rolls Royce.

If anyone has a drone that they no longer need, I could pass it on...

But dem rulz int being stuck too iz day, uvver wyze dis drone wouldn't av it a plane innit.
Now, I'm off to walk the Staffy and slug another Stella.

turning the fuel tanks of the aircraft into the bomb with the drone being the detonator.

I think someone doesn't understand the concept of a bomb. Fuel tanks are full of fuel, which might burn but certainly won't explode unless mixed with lots of air (or other oxidising agent) - for instance after a large crash that might smash the plane to pieces and mix the fuel and air nicely.

Considering the number of MANPADs unaccounted for from various failed regimes across the world, the risk of drone use by terrorists doesn't upset me too much.

I suspect that (whilst anyone using a drone on the flight path is an idiot and should be prosecuted) the risk posed by drones is comparatively low.

So it might not have been a drone after all. The Telegraph reports that it might have been a plastic bag.....

What damage testing is done with airliners and engines for hitting plastic bags?

Should plastic bags be licensed?

Should plastic bags be banned near airports?

Bag or not, the difference between these 'drones' and a bird is the fact that birds don't carry a lithium battery onboard.

I wouldn't like to see one on my engines ingest a lithium battery on short final.

Although damage to the aircraft is a valid point, one of the major factors of these things is their effect on the ability of the pilot to manage the aircraft.

The altitude where these glory toys are usually found is round about the altitudes where the pilots are at their most busy ie, on approach or on departure. The bloody things are a distraction at the busiest time of any flight.

From an ATC perspective it also takes away time from us. The pilot reports it to us, we copy down the details and pass them on to the relevant police authority. In the time it takes to do this, I could have given umpteen instructions to aircraft to make their flights more safe and efficient.

I truly believe there is a need for these things (survey/surveillance etc) but there has to be a register and a licence requirement for anything over a specific weight.

Birds, I imagine, have a natural survival instinct to keep away from an aircraft.
They probably do, but see the video above.

I imagine that, regardless of self-preservation instinct, it can still be tricky to avoid a massive jet approaching at 560mph+

Interesting one this one - it's less clear cut than you'd think. Birds have evolved over millions of years to assume that once they're above the tree line they don't need to look where they're going (other than to avoid hills and mountains) - this was a perfectly reasonable strategy until 100 years ago or so. This is why they put big orange things on power lines etc and why lots of birds hit buildings - the birds spend their time looking at the ground.

From an ATC perspective it also takes away time from us. The pilot reports it to us, we copy down the details and pass them on to the relevant police authority. In the time it takes to do this, I could have given umpteen instructions to aircraft to make their flights more safe and efficient.

Are you ATC at Heathrow by any chance?

Notter - Member

Personally if I'm in a plane I'd prefer if nothing hit it, especially something controlled by another human being. Simple point being that it might cause a plane to come down, even a 0.0000000000001% risk is too much, and frankly any idiot flying one close to an airport should be chucked into a padded cell. Same goes for the twunts with laser pens.

True, but there is more chance of you having an injury in a park due to irresponsible drone use than in a plane. The perceived risk of the plane is higher as its more people injured from a single accident.

Its the same as how everyone is mortified by a bus crash but dont give 2 shits about hundreds of people dying each year in cars from drivers not paying attention.

Some people fit lithium batteries onto birds so the can be tracked by GPS when the migrate.

Aviation industry likes to think it's good at testing and safety, but had effectively done buggeral testing of Volcanic Ash ingestion into engines prior to Eyjafjalljokull

Was it fitted with disc brakes?

Aviation industry likes to think it's good at testing and safety, but had effectively done buggeral testing of Volcanic Ash ingestion into engines prior to Eyjafjalljokull

That may be true, but volcanic ash is easily detectable and you can fly around it. A drone thing is not

Are you ATC at Heathrow by any chance?

Plastic bag is an interesting theory, do they really fly around at 5000ft ? TBH this smacks of Government trying to "reassure" plublic as they have no credible polciy responce to drones.

What if the plastic bag had a drone in it?

Unexpected plane in bagging area.

I'm not ATC at Heathrow.

Shouldn't be too hard to come up with automated lasers to sit around airport perimeters.

lots of airports have automated lasers already - they aint much good at shooting down drones though.

Maybe they should have eagles instead. The bird scarer blokes often have a bird of prey with them to chase off geese...they can train em by strapping a sausage to a DJ11

I'm not ATC at Heathrow.

Thanks for that.
Been trying to sort out another nosey around the tower when I'm at work but not having much luck so far!

molgrips - Member

Shouldn't be too hard to come up with automated lasers to sit around airport perimeters.

Well given the strike was reported over Richmond Park, they better have good targeting, hopefully enough to be able to hit a wobbling toy drone and not an air ambulance or little jonnys kite 😀

5000ft? above Richmond Park?

I'd love to know what drone that is.
When we fly (much larger) rockets that high you can barely see them at that altitude. No way in hell could one do line of sight control of a drone at that distance, and I'd be surprised if any even have sufficient RF range.

From the original Beeb story I'd assumed it was within the vicinity of the perimeter fence at LHR.

There was also a story about US being able to "take control" of drones. To which my answer would be "BS". Take control, at best would be to cause a denial of service on it, to which the usual reaction would be to either cut throttle to 0, or to initiate automatic fly home.

Is it on conveyor belt?

I've been up a couple of times and have a few mates there. The difference in size between a380 and a321 from above makes me giggle. "aw look, it's had a baby"

they better have good targeting

I like a good arms race.

andytherocketeer - Member

5000ft? above Richmond Park?

[i]"The suspected drone which struck a British Airways as it came into land was flying at 1,700ft in the proximity of Richmond Park, police have revealed."[/i]

1700ft seems low but I dont think you would be at 5000ft if landing from that direction? Suppose that's the issue with guessing where you are at speed and altitude, just because you can see Richmond park doesn't mean your not miles away from it.

A few people have commented on the lithium in the lithium polymer batteries... these should be charged and stored in a special fire retardant sack just in case they burst into flames so I'm no doubt that pilots and airports want hovering incendiary devices kept well away from their airspace! Lipo battery fires are also very hard to extinguish.

Lipo battery fires are also very hard to extinguish.

The flight controllers on a drone as well as auto stabilising can be connected to a GPS and autopilot which can be programmed to fly a waypoint course, height can also be set so there is no need to control it other than take off and landing.

1700ft seems low but I dont think you would be at 5000ft if landing from that direction? Suppose that's the issue with guessing where you are at speed and altitude, just because you can see Richmond park doesn't mean your not miles away from it.

Depending on the aircraft/weather, they're usually about 1500ft - 1800ft over Richmond Park. If you look on Flightradar, you can see speed and altitude of all the incoming aircraft.
High for a small consumer quadcopter like a Phantom, probably almost out of visual range.

Equally, that's very high for a plastic bag too!

May even have been a birdstrike. Goose or gull or something like that. Might look quite similar to a quad when you see it in the blink of eye before your aircraft goes through it at 260mph...

Does it really matter if it's out of sight.

What's the range on these FPV set ups?

Unexpected plane in bagging area.

Thought this was a non-story when it was on the news the other week - A plane might have been hit by a drone and was undamaged. Ok, so nothing actually happened at all. Cheers.