British Airways drone narrowly escapes at 10,000 feet, flight 5 feet from disaster scene

A British Airways flight was just five feet away from disaster after an illegally flown drone came extremely close to the plane at nearly 10,000ft.

When the incident occurred on January 3, the flight was due to join the holding pile near Sevenoaks before preparing to land.

The plane was carrying about 180 passengers and was traveling to London Heathrow Airport at 250 mph when the pilot became aware of an object flying nearby.

The pilot said the object “shot down our right side” and described it as “very close.”

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The report adds: “They became aware of an object on the same level to the right of the nose, with constant orientation and close distance. It was small but had the unique shape of a drone.”

The UK’s Airprox committee, which assesses near-miss aviation accidents, classified the near-miss as a Category A accident, meaning there was a serious risk of collision.

In the UK, the legal height for drone flight is only 400 feet, and there are growing concerns about the dangers drones pose to flying.

The drone flew 24 times higher than the usual limit, and the report details how it flew just 5 feet above the wing of an Airbus A321 and 30 feet from the cockpit.

It is unclear whether the operator of the drone has been found, but if the safety of the aircraft is compromised, the operator could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

Drones can cause catastrophic damage to aircraft by being sucked into jet engines or breaking windshields.

“Security Investigations’ analysis of the radar indicates that no primary or secondary contacts related to the drone report were shown on the radar at the approximate time of the incident. The committee believes that the altitude of the report and/or the description of the object is sufficient to indicate It could have been a drone,” the report added.

A spokesman for British Airways told independent: “We take matters like this very seriously and our pilots report incidents so that authorities can investigate and take appropriate action.”