Comment by dalke | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dalke | Hacker News Reader

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/06/23/cl... - "In 15 cases over the past two years, drones flew dangerously close to airports or passenger aircraft" - "A NASA database of confidential complaints filed by pilots and air-traffic controllers has recorded 50 other reports of close calls or improper flight operations involving drones over the past decade." - "Since November 2009, law enforcement agencies, universities and other registered drone users have reported 23 accidents and 236 unsafe incidents, according to FAA records."

> On Sept. 22, while at an altitude of 2,300 feet over Phoenix, a pilot reported a near-collision with a black-and-white drone the size of a basketball, according to records the FAA released with many details redacted. The pilot reported that the drone was 200 feet ahead and closing in. The pilot swerved left and the two aircraft missed each other by 50 feet.

> On March 25, 2012, a pilot was flying 11 miles northwest of Houston at 2,000 feet when he saw what he described as a drone just 100 feet below his plane. The mysterious aircraft disappeared in a blur before the pilot could get a better look. He notified the control tower, but it could not find the drone on radar.

Interesting, thank you very much for that link.

I gotta say, though... Back in the day, I was really interested in skeptic culture, which at that point was focused on debunking UFO sightings. Often, airline pilots were the ones who reported UFOs. And the pilots' drone reports in that newspaper article really feel familiar to the old UFO reports in their vagueness and impossibility to confirm, without useful radar information or photographs. This one in particular set off screaming alarm bells for me:

"In the first incident on May 29, the pilot of a commercial airliner descending toward LaGuardia Airport saw what appeared to be a black drone with a 10-to-15-foot wingspan about 5,500 feet above Lower Manhattan, according to a previously undisclosed report filed with the Federal Aviation Administration."

10-to-15 foot wingspan? 5,500 feet up? Really? And nobody could track down this enormous mystery aircraft operating high above one of the most tightly controlled airspaces in the world and almost colliding with an airliner?

Of course, none of this says that a drone and an airplane couldn't get into a fatal collision at some point -- it's a serious danger we should consider ways to avoid -- but there's just something about these reports that feels terribly off.

I can see where you are coming from. Plus, these observations are of "unidentified" flying objects, making them technically UFOs.

When will airlines have the equivalent of dashcams?

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