Plane strike research called for as drone near-misses continue

The British pilots’ union, BALPA, has called for the government and a safety regulator to back research into how serious the effects of a drone strike could be on aircraft. This comes in the wake of a report released by the UK Airprox board which has revealed that over a six-month period between April 11 and October 4, 2015, there were 23 near-misses involving drones and commercial aircraft. One drone passed within 25m (82ft) of a Boeing 777 near London’s Heathrow airport. This was, in fact, one of 12 incidents given an ‘A’ rating where it was deemed there was “a serious risk of collision,” another was when a drone came within 20m (66ft) of an Embraer 170 while it was approaching London City Airport.
Many pilots believe it is not a case of if, but when a drone strikes a plane, and nobody as yet has any idea of what the true consequences will be. BALPA have expressed the opinion that a drone could smash a windscreen or the lithium battery in a drone cause an engine fire which could disable an aircraft. They have called on the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Department of Transport (DoT) to back research into the effects of a drone strike on aircraft. Steve Landells, a former RAF and British Airways pilot, said that there was plenty of information on the effects of a bird strike on aircraft, but that research related to drone strikes was needed as “birds don’t have a big lump of lithium battery in them”.
Philippa Oldham, from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, has indicated that the consequences of a drone hitting a commercial airliner would be governed by the size and speed of the drone, and the location of the collision. “The impact potentially could be anything from nothing to a destruction of an engine,” she said.
A spokesperson for the Department for Transport made it clear that public safety was “our first priority” and that there was already close co-operation between them, the CAA and airline operators to “improve our understanding and knowledge of this emerging technology”.