Lufthansa flight nearly collides with Drone near Warsaw

EASA is on the case…

And they can carry a payload:

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This is the military part of EPKK.

QuoteRadio controlled model aircraft have been around since the 1950ies and I am not aware of any serious accident.

I don’t agree with the notion “nothing has changed, move along”. Three things happened in the last few years.

1. Drones got the intelligence to fly themselves. If, as the operator, you do nothing, the drone will hover in a static position thanks to GPS, micro-gyros and whatnot, and will eventually land itself before it runs out of power. As an operator, you only need to tell the drone where to go, not how to get there. This greatly reduces the skill set you have to have as an operator, which makes drones suitable to anybody with the right amount of cash. No training required.
2. Drones have gotten much, much cheaper over the years. You no longer to to a specialist store, and then become member of a model aeroplane club, where somebody teaches you how to fly and how to behave responsibly. Instead, you just go to the toy store at the corner, buy a drone and some FPV goggles, and fire the set up. 90% of drone users today have no clue that there are even rules governing their usage. Let alone know what the rules are.
3. First Person View (FPV) means that you no longer have to remain in sight of the drone to know what it’s doing. Subject to signal strength (and if you use a 3G connection that’s not an issue anymore as well) you can fly the drone kilometers from where you’re standing. Before FPV the drone had to be within 100 meters of you, otherwise you lost the ability to see and control it.

These three things conspire to the point where we are now: Where drones are going to be a significant hazard to aviation. Near misses have occurred, aerial firefighting operations have been halted. We’re just waiting for the first serious accident.

Drones in all shapes and sizes are here to stay. So far no serious accidents has actually occurred, …

Exactly. Radio controlled model aircraft have been around since the 1950ies and I am not aware of any serious accident. There is – at least in this part of the world – enough legislation controlling their usage. And a “normal” drone is no big risk for an airliner anyway. It can cause expensive damage to an engine or shatter the outer glass screen of a windshield, but that’s about it. Aircraft do not crash because of that. And the real heavy drones used for TV broadcasts are very expensive and operated by qualified personnel who know the rules and who know the consequences for violating them.

Airborne_Again wrote:

I think that authorities are rapidly losing control of the drone situation

I think no. Drones in all shapes and sizes are here to stay. So far no serious accidents has actually occurred, so the problems with drones are so far just fantasies from an objective standpoint. Accident will of course eventually occur, but I think those will be drones falling down on people rather than colliding with aircraft. A camera drone weighing 30-40 kg will easily kill a person when falling.

People using drones to fly near aircraft is already illegal, and such an act is far from “accidental” in any case, but a serious crime.

AdamFrisch wrote:

Even if it means NSA and MI6 will know my every move from that moment on.

Are you completely nuts?

… or just legalise shooting them if they are over your property, and make shotguns more accessible…

I would predict anti-drone drones for any decent sized airport at some point in the future.

Thanks!