San Francisco: A British Airways plane may have been hit by a drone on Sunday as it approached London’s Heathrow airport.
The pilot of Flight 727 from Geneva, an Airbus A320 that had 132 passengers and five crew members on board, reported at about 12:50pm local time that he believed a drone had struck the front of the aircraft, according to a statement from the London Metropolitan Police. There were no injuries and the police are investigating.
“Our aircraft landed safely, was fully examined by our engineers and it was cleared to operate its next flight,” British Airways said in a statement.
“It is totally unacceptable to fly drones close to airports and anyone flouting the rules can face severe penalties including imprisonment,” the UK’s civil aviation authority said in a statement. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported 1,200 incidents last year involving drones, up fivefold from 2014. No collisions were reported, though the incidents included flying too close to passenger airliners and other aircraft. Bloomberg
