Investigations launched after suspected drone strikes passenger jet in London

Did a drone hit an airliner trying to land at London’s Heathrow Airport?

The pilot of a British Airways flight certainly thinks so, and now authorities would like to find out who might have been behind the weekend incident.

British Airways Flight BA727 from Geneva was approaching Heathrow on Sunday afternoon when what the pilot believed to be a drone struck the front of the aircraft, London Metropolitan Police said. The plane was 1,700 feet in the air at the time, police said.

The Airbus A320 landed safely, with none of the 132 passengers and five crew members on board injured, British Airways spokesman Michael Johnson said.

The plane was fine, too, he said.

Still, authorities worry that careless drone use will eventually lead to a catastrophe.

“Thankfully the aircraft landed safely but the incident highlights the very real dangers of reckless, negligent and some times malicious use of drones,” Chief Superintendent Martin Hendy, head of Metropolitan Police Service’s Aviation Policing Command said in a statement. “We continue to work with the Civil Aviation Authority and other partners to tackle this issue and ensure that enthusiasts who fly drones understand the dangers and the law.

A drone that carries humans?

Video Ad Feedback

Drones facing increased regulation

04:42 - Source: CNN

No one has yet been arrested, but police think the drone in question may have been launched from southwest London’s Richmond Park. They searched the area for debris but haven’t yet found anything.

Authorities asked the public for help Monday, asking anyone who was at the park and might have seen anything to get in touch. They also asked anyone who finds drone debris to contact police.

Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch announced Monday that it was also looking into the incident.

‘Totally unacceptable’: Civil Aviation Authority

Fleets of drones carrying crucial goods such as medicine will soon streak the skies of Rwanda, putting the small east-central African country at the forefront of a technological revolution.

Designed to be cheap, simple and robust, the drones will have payloads of up to 100 kg (220lb), while the droneports will function as hubs to allow recharging, cargo loading and dropoff, as well as repairs.

With the project expected to break ground in 2016, a functioning drone delivery network could be in place as early as 2020.

The project is the brainchild of Jonathan Ledgard, head of the Afrotech project at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), and world-renowned British architect Norman Foster.

"I went to Norman because I knew that there was no one else on the planet better suited than him to design this," Ledgard told CNN.
"I said, you designed the largest airport in the world -- now build me the smallest."

The buildings are designed to be extremely easy to construct, with architects Forster+Partners leveraging on their experience with airports -- they created the world's largest airport terminal in Beijing -- as well as more outlandish projects such as one involving a 3D-printed moon base that they designed with the European Space Agency.

All the raw materials will be sourced on site, reducing transportation costs, with the droneport consisting of a 'kit-of-parts' that can be easily assembled by local communities.

"Rwanda's challenging geographical and social landscape makes it an ideal test-bed for the Droneport project," said Norman Foster while presenting the initiative, which he reckons could have "a massive impact through the century and save lives immediately."

"The droneport itself will be a mix between a railway station, a petrol station, a blacksmith shop and a post office," said Ledgard, who points out that the network will provide distribution hubs rather the a "last mile" delivery infrastructure.

"Nobody cares about the last mile in Africa," he says, highlighting the difference between the droneport idea and what Amazon and other vendors are planning to do with drones in Western markets, where unmanned aerial vehicles are touted to be the next innovative step in the final delivery of consumer goods of any type, including pizza.

Each droneport will take two to three years to build, at a projected cost of about $300,000.

"We wanted a concept that was really cheap," said Ledgard, "and the drones themselves will contain a tiny amount of super high-tech and a lot of low-tech."

Built to be robust, economical and simple to repair, they will be powered by electric engines and have a fixed wing design, more closely resembling commercial planes rather than quadrocopters.

The idea could have a great impact on the local economies of developing African countries: "This is a multi-billion dollar industry, without question," said Ledgard.

For the initial applications, the team is looking at blood for transfusions and other life-giving supplies such as pharmaceuticals. But the network could then extend to perishable goods and e-commerce purchases.

Droneports aren't intended to replace road networks in Africa, but increase their capacity: "Road systems are going to improve a bit in the future, but not enough to move the economy along," said Ledgard.

"But even increasing your transportation capacity by a small percentage can be beneficial, especially for high value, perishable goods."

While the project is progressing rapidly, Ledgard offers a word of caution: "We want to emphasize that there are still a lot of questions," he said.

"But we're making good progress: We intend to break ground next year, and I would be very disappointed it if we didn't."

Two types of drones have been designed, with a larger version capable of a 100kg payload to enter service in a second phase, around 2025.

They will fly at a projected speed of about 90 km/h over lakes, rivers and mountain ridges, and offer extremely competitive costs compared to road transportation.

For the network to be functional, three droneports are needed, and they would be able to cover a significant portion of rural Rwanda.

Ledgard, whose intimate knowledge of the continent also comes from a decade of work as news correspondent from troubled areas, envisions the idea to soon expand to other countries, with Angola, Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire as ideal candidates.
But the droneports would be useful outside of Africa as well, wherever road networks are limited, such as in Siberia, parts of Brazil and Argentina, Canada and even the North of Scotland.

Star architect designs the world's first 'airport for drones'

Prev Next

Britain banned drones from royal parks in 2015 over terrorism concerns. Richmond Park is the largest of London’s eight royal parks and the biggest enclosed space in the city, according to the royal parks’ website.

Other rules for drone pilots in the UK include making sure the flying machines are always within the operator’s line of sight, not flying above 400 feet (122 meters), and staying away from airports and aircraft.

“It is totally unacceptable to fly drones close to airports, and anyone flouting the rules can face severe penalties including imprisonment,” said the statement.

Google exec: Drone deliveries could come in one year

Dodging drones in the sky

The rate of close encounters between drones and planes is on the upswing United Kingdom, according to the Airprox Board, which tracks airline safety.

Aircraft had 23 close encounters from April to October 2015, with 12 classed as presenting a serious risk of collision, the board said.

Drones flying too close to commercial flights pose a serious threat to larger aircraft, and can be sucked into the engine or crash into the cockpit window, injuring or killing a pilot.

In the United States, hundreds of drones have flown dangerously close to manned aircraft in U.S. airspace, forcing pilots to sometimes take evasive action, according to Bard College’s Center for the Study of the Drone.

Is it OK to shoot down a drone over your backyard?

A recent report, based on the center’s analysis of Federal Aviation Administration data from August 21, 2015 to January 31, 2016, said there were 519 incidents involving passenger aircraft and unmanned drones in the U.S. within that period.

That was three times as many incidents as in the same period a year earlier.

Video Ad Feedback

Dutch cops train eagles to hunt drones

00:51 - Source: Dutch National Police

Hundreds of drones fly dangerously close to manned aircraft

CNN’s Holly Yan, Karen Smith, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Faith Karimi contributed to this report.