Luke Skywalker
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A drone developed by Japan's Autonomous Control Systems Laboratory (ACSL) flies beside a condomimium for a field test in Chiba, suburb of Tokyo, on April 11, 2016.(Photo: TORU YAMANAKA, AFP/Getty Images)
A British Airways plane’s collision with a drone while landing at Heathrow Airport has renewed calls for stricter regulation in the U.S., where more than 150 airliners reported close sightings of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>drones in the last 18 months, including eight in the last two weeks of January.
“This is a real issue," Steve Marks, an aviation lawyer in Miami. "This is a warning for the flying public, airlines and operators that this can’t be ignored any longer."
The Air Line Pilots Association seeks<span style="color: Red;">*</span>stricter regulation of drones and their operators to avoid such collisions, which could disable an aircraft<span style="color: Red;">*</span>if the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>metal frame and battery of a drone come in contact with an<span style="color: Red;">*</span>airliner’s engine. The result would be similar to a bird strike, such as the geese that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>knocked out the engines of the US Airways flight which forced it to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>land<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on the Hudson River in 2009.
"There is a reasonable, remote risk of a plane going down," Marks said. "It would be irresponsible to ignore that danger."
Federal Aviation Administration logged<span style="color: Red;">*</span>1,348 reports of drone sightings from Nov. 13, 2014 through Jan. 31, 2016, the latest month available. Many of the incidents involved general-aviation aircraft rather than commercial airliners, but a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>USA TODAY analysis of the FAA data shows that at least 153 of the drone-related sightings and incidents, or 11%, involved airliners or large cargo planes such as those operated by UPS.
USA TODAY
Drone sightings near U.S. airports by the numbers
In a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>two-week period in January, the pilots of eight commercial airliners reported drone sightings, including one in Miami that came within 100 feet of the plane.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The pilot of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>an Airbus 319 en route from<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Ecuador on Jan. 30 spotted a spotted a white, quad-copter drone about 100 feet above the jet as it<span style="color: Red;">*</span>approached<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Miami’s airport an altitude of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>1,700 feet.
The same day, an ExpressJet Airlines flight at 19,500 feet, traveling<span style="color: Red;">*</span>about 50 miles south of Atlanta, reported a drone 300 feet below and to the left of the airliner.
In one instance involving a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>SkyWest flight<span style="color: Red;">*</span>approaching Tucson airport at 3,700 feet in the air on Jan. 18, a orange drone passing within 100 yards of the plane was so large controllers in the airport's tower could see it with binoculars.
Other sightings during that period included a Canadair flight in Burbank, Calif., <span style="color: Red;">*</span>and JetBlue flight at New York's John F. Kennedy airport.
USA TODAY
FAA: Drone sightings on pace to quadruple this year
The United Kingdom's Air Accidents Investigations Branch will<span style="color: Red;">*</span>investigate<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the Sunday incident<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to confirm the pilot's report of a drone collision,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>but the Airbus A320 landed safely and was cleared for another flight after an inspection.
The Federal Aviation Administration in the USA<span style="color: Red;">*</span>created a national registry for drone owners<span style="color: Red;">*</span>so that investigators could track down an operator after a crash. The registry, begun Dec. 21, has 400,000 names<span style="color: Red;">*</span>–<span style="color: Red;">*</span>more than the number of registrations for regular planes. The agency also<span style="color: Red;">*</span>regulates<span style="color: Red;">*</span>how and where drones can fly. The FAA expects to finalize rules for commercial drones weighing up to 55 pounds by June.
Those rules won't apply worldwide. To get broader regulations in place, the International Civil Aviation Organization, a branch of the United Nations, must set policies,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Marks said.
Jim Williams, the former manager of FAA’s office overseeing the integration of drones into the national airspace and now a principal handling aviation issues at Dentons law firm,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>noted federal and state lawmakers have already<span style="color: Red;">*</span>approved<span style="color: Red;">*</span>drone regulations, and drone companies are seeking technology solutions, such as radio signals, to better track and control the craft.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Some manufacturers have programmed "fences" in the skies to prevent drones from flying too close to airports or other restricted areas.
“There’s no real panacea for this," Williams said. <span style="color: Red;">*</span>"It’s got to be education, penalties for people who screw up and fly too close, but it also has to be a mechanism to catch the people."
USA TODAY
Drone hobbyists find flaws in "close call" reports to FAA from other aircraft
Hobbyists contend reports of drone sightings can be vague,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>may be mistaken and often pose no danger. <span style="color: Red;">*</span>A study by the Academy of Model Aeronautics, which represents 180,000 recreational operators, found that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the first 764 incident reports included just 27 that pilots described as a “near miss.”
None of the sightings involved a collision and pilots reported taking evasive action<span style="color: Red;">*</span>10 times amid the hundreds of reports, according to the group.
Dave Mathewson, the group’s executive director, said the organization supports<span style="color: Red;">*</span>safety guidelines.
“If the investigation reveals someone was flying in a careless and reckless manner, we support him or her being held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.
Contributing: Mark Nichols
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