- Close call was on a Boeing 787 aircraft at 10,500ft over Kent on February 26
An illegally flown drone came within 50ft of smashing into the windscreen of a British Airways plane flying at nearly 360mph, a report has revealed.
The close call at a height of 10,500ft over the Kent countryside is believed to be the highest ever altitude recorded for a near miss between a BA plane and a drone.
The incident which happened just before 2.50pm on February 26 this year involved a Boeing B787-8 Dreamliner carrying up to 214 passengers.
The plane had taken off ten minutes earlier for a flight to Chennai, India, according to flight tracking website flightradar24.
A report by the UK Airprox Board which assesses near misses rated it as a Category A incident where there was a serious risk of collision.
The report said that the plane’s first officer ‘looked up to see an object approaching dead-ahead’.
It added: ‘They were confused as it was not an aircraft or a bird, and they were startled.
‘The object was closing rapidly, and then clearly apparent as a medium sized quadcopter with four downward facing blue lights.
‘It approached almost head-on, slightly to the right-hand side. It was hard to estimate the distance but, given the clear definition of lights and shape detail, it was discussed to be potentially within 50ft of the FO’s windscreen. ATC (air traffic control) was informed.’
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The pilots who were flying at the same height as the drone rated the chance of a collision as ‘high’ in their report.
The air traffic controller in Swanwick, Hampshire, who was handling the flight said the BA pilot had reported a drone with blue lights ‘straight down the middle’.
The controller said that pilots of aircraft on the same flightpath were notified so they could keep an eye out for the drone.
The incident is the latest in a series of near misses involving drones and BA planes, as well as other airliners, in UK airspace. MailOnline told exclusively in March how another BA flight flying from Heathrow to Athens at 250mph had a drone miss its wingtip by just 5ft at a height of 9,600ft seven miles south of Sevenoaks, Kent, on January 3 this year
Drones are normally legally restricted to flying at a maximum height of just 400ft, meaning that the device in the near miss was flying at more than 26 times the permitted altitude.
Software embedded in most modern drones stops them being flown at great heights, but it can be overridden by patches bought online.
Operators can also fit extra batteries to enable their devices to soar into the sky.
The operator of the drone could have faced a prison sentence of up to five years if convicted of endangering an aircraft, but it is believed they were never found.
It is thought that they may have flown deliberately into a flightpath for airliners departing Heathrow in order to try and get dramatic video of planes flying past.
Pilots and aviation experts have repeatedly warned of the dangers posed by a drone hitting an aircraft windscreen or being sucked into a jet engine in recent years.
The UK Airprox Board report concluded: ‘In the Board’s opinion the reported altitude and/or description of the object were sufficient to indicate that it could have been a drone.
‘The Board considered that the pilot’s overall account of the incident portrayed a situation where providence had played a major part in the incident and/or a definite risk of collision had existed.’
A British Airways spokesperson said: ‘We take these incidents seriously and our pilots report them so that the authorities can investigate and take appropriate action.’
