EasyJet flight from England to Rhodes almost collided with a drone

An EasyJet plane came within three meters of crashing into a drone, which was flying 40 times higher than the legal limit, according to a report in the Sun newspaper.

The two pilots of the Airbus A320 spotted the black flying object when they reached 16,000ft above the Kent coast.

One pilot thought he heard a noise and feared the drone had hit the plane, which was carrying 180 passengers from Gatwick to Rhodes on July 5, according to the Sun.

The pilot told air traffic controllers in London: “We almost hit a drone. We are talking about less than three meters. We don’t think we hit it, there was a little noise, we’ll be back.”

When the plane arrived in Greece, the pilot assessed the plane and confirmed that no damage had been done. “I can confirm that we did not hit the drone,” he said.
He added: “It passed very close under the aircraft, but we concluded that the noise the first pilot heard was probably coming from the cockpit.”

The Airprox Board, which assesses the severity of aircraft accidents, rated the incident as Category A, meaning there was a “serious risk of collision”.

A 2016 study, commissioned by the Department for Transport and the British Airline Pilots Association, found that a mid-air collision with a 4kg drone at high speed could cause serious damage to the aircraft.

Read the News today and get the latest news.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news.