Drone comes within 200 feet of airliner near L.A. airport
LOS ANGELES >> A commercial jetliner nearly collided with a drone while approaching Los Angeles International Airport on Friday afternoon, sparking a search by L.A. police and sheriff’s officials for the owner of the unmanned aircraft.
The near-miss was reported before 2 p.m. about 14 miles east of the airport at an elevation of 5,000 feet and involved a Lufthansa Airbus A380, said Los Angeles police Lt. Robert Binder. The drone flew 200 feet over the aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and police helicopters were headed to the area to try and locate the drone pilot, Binder said, adding that it would be a long-shot search.
As drones have become more prevalent, so have their run-ins with aircraft. Over the last few years, drones have grounded firefighting aircraft in California by flying too close during firefighting missions and have smacked into buildings and taken down power lines.
In November, a Los Angeles man was forced to hand his drone over and promise not to fly one for another three years after interfering with a police search.
Pilots across the country are logging a fast-rising number of near-misses with drones, with 1 out of 5 of those risky incidents happening in California, according to an August 2015 article in the Los Angeles Times. Those conclusions come from an analysis of federal data released Thursday by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
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The data show nearly 200 reports of close encounters involving drones reported in California since April 2014 — the most of any state.
Currently, hobbyists flying drones have few federal legal restrictions, although they are warned not to fly within five miles of airports or above 400 feet. Drone operators can be fined if they endanger people or other aircraft, the FAA says.
7 responses to “Drone comes within 200 feet of airliner near L.A. airport”
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Always gottah have one dummy to spoil it for the rest of us. Can you say, Confiscate Please.
If it weighed over 55 lbs and duly registered, it’ll be a short search. Lots of luck locating the owner if it isn’t.
These drones, if allowed would potentially be another way terrorists could bring down an airliner. The A380 is the biggest commercial airliner in the world and even bigger than the 747. The FAA is going to have to think really long about whether to allow drones in the air. We can’t wait for the first major disaster to outlaw drones.
There’s much ado about gun control. Why not direct that energy toward drones as one commentator indicated the drones could be weapon of choice by terrorist. Imagine it is being researched for sure. Even rumors of North Korea using drones for whatever purposes. In WW II the Japanese were reputed to have used balloons to carry bombs and parachute down to West coast cities. Weapons of war know no bounds.
As far as weaponized drones go, it would be almost as hard control their import or manufacture as it is to control the import or manufacture of working repeating rifles. The Japanese fire balloons or balloon bombs (Fu-Go) were real weapons, and were launched by the thousands with the hope that they’d rain random destruction on the cities and forests of the U.S. Mainland and Canada. They carried small anti-personnel bombs, incendiary devices, or a combination of the two. Largely ineffective, a pregnant woman and five children with her were the only known fatalities from these weapons. An attempt was made during the war to conceal their existence from the American public, which partially accounts for their relative obscurity today.
There is an overlap between drone supporters and gun supporters who are arguing that drones equipped with guns are protected under the second amendment. Ranchers and farmers are used drones equipped with guns to patrol and protect range and fammland. The argument is that guns on drones are guns protected under the second amendment right to keep and bear arms.
There are no verifiable references that I can find that indicate that there is any use of armed drones for agriculture in the United States. I found two references to non-military armed drones and the 2nd Amendment, both speculative and one from a crackpot internet source.