Contrary to previous reports, an Embraer 175 that took off from Chicago O’Hare Airport last week did not collide with a drone, but with a party balloon. This is reported by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after an investigation. A sound fragment in which the pilot claims to have hit a drone was picked up worldwide by the media and caused a lot of unrest in aviation circles.
British aviation occurrence analyst AAIB has released details of a bizarre incident involving an experimental drone. A scale model of an Alauda Airspeeder Mk II racing drone weighing 210 pounds became uncontrollable, climbed to an altitude of approximately 8,000 feet, and then crashed just next to a residential area due to an empty battery. Fortunately, nobody got injured.
This morning, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested a drone pilot from Hollywood on a federal charge alleging that he recklessly operated an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) that crashed into and damaged a helicopter from the Los Angeles Police Department.
In December last year, a news helicopter was likely struck by a drone. The NTSB has come to this conclusion based on forensic analysis and crew reports. The mid-air collision forced the helicopter to make a precautionary landing in Los Angeles. This is now the sixth highly probable or confirmed drone strike in the U.S. airspace.
A police drone collides with a police helicopter in mid-air over a rural part of British Columbia, Canada in February. The drone was obliterated. The manned aircraft was damaged but was able to land safely. None of the three people on board were hurt, according to the Civilian Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System (CADORS).
Check out this video, in which three different drones strike an airplane in tests for the Hungarian Hub in Aviation, Legter.hu. Two of the drones that are sacrificed in the test are Phantoms from DJI. The airplane that was used is an Antonov An-2. Some of the drone collisions took place mid-flight which is believed to be a word’s first.