Reported Canadian Drone Aircraft Collision – Things to Consider

[Jagerbomb52]

Copy and pasted from flitelab.com

The past few days the media has been filled with stories of the Oct 12th reported collision between a drone and a passenger aircraft, as outlined in this CBC story, one of many now being published world wide.

As Per the CADORS report:

A Beech A100 operated by Sky Jet (C-GJBV / SJ512), flying from Schefferville (CYKL), QC, to Quebec City / Jean Lesage (CYQB) QC, struck a drone on the nose of the aircraft at 7 miles in the final runway 24 to 2400 ft. The extent of the damage is unknown. The aircraft landed safely.

With the story comes a number of points that need be considered, as many run off in the direction of the worst case scenario.

1. Was the report confirmed as a drone? To date we have seen no physical evidence and as has been seen in the past, such as the case in the UK where the drone turned out to be a plastic bag, things are not always as they first appear.
2. If it was in fact a drone, this would only be the second confirmed case worldwide, the first being the recent accident in the US with the Blackhawk helicopter. While some may say any incident is one too many, given the number of drones being used the actual accidents have basically been nil.
3. As with the Blackhawk incident, no injuries were reported and both aircraft were able to land with only minor damage. Again if this was a drone the damaged caused seems to be minimal and not the horror story that some have predicted.
4. The Minister reports that there have been 1,596 drone incidents to date for 2017 in Canada. However CADORS only shows 227 cases and recent reports from the new UAS Task Force that is part of Transport Canada reported only 74 as of Q2 2017. We are curious as to the variations in numbers being mentioned.
5. If this was an actual drone incident it is in violations of the current regulations. Either a recreational flight outside the altitude limits and distances to an aerodrome or a commercial flight that did not do proper coordination with ATC. In either case adding more laws will not solve the problem, it is already an illegal operations. What is needed is more education and more enforcement of the regulations we have now, not more laws that some will always choose to ignore.

At the end of the day incidents like this help no one, it gives drones a bad name in the eyes of the public and it causes knee jerk reactions from regulators. However we need to consider the facts and not make judgement until all the details are known, or we may have another case of a plastic bag, but the public never see that, they merely remember the Minister crying foul against drones.

We all have a responsibility to fly safe, educate others, and to provide clear, correct information on issues like this and also the good drones do. For every reported incident there are thousands of flights daily that are uneventful, many serving to grow the economy or the pure enjoyment of users.

 

[FlushVision]

...<snip>... However we need to consider the facts and not make judgement until all the details are known, or we may have another case of a plastic bag, but the public never see that, they merely remember the Minister crying foul against drones.
...<snip>...

I remember the plastic bag incident. I think it was early in 2016. It was headline news in some of the tabloid newspapers...words to the effect: 'Drone Hits Passenger Jet!!!', and the text underneath those headlines were nothing short of scaremongering drivel about how near it was to a great disaster with the potential for massive loss of life.

Then it became apparent that no such collision had taken place. Investigators found that the aircraft had actually hit a plastic bag. But did those same newspapers report the investigators findings? You guessed it. And there's been no mention of those findings in those newspapers to this day.

As has always been the case with newspapers...take anything you read with a large pinch of salt because the truth is often far different to those 'pseudo truths' that newspapers thrive upon.

 

[Murray Martz]

Copy and pasted from flitelab.com

The past few days the media has been filled with stories of the Oct 12th reported collision between a drone and a passenger aircraft, as outlined in this CBC story, one of many now being published world wide.

As Per the CADORS report:

A Beech A100 operated by Sky Jet (C-GJBV / SJ512), flying from Schefferville (CYKL), QC, to Quebec City / Jean Lesage (CYQB) QC, struck a drone on the nose of the aircraft at 7 miles in the final runway 24 to 2400 ft. The extent of the damage is unknown. The aircraft landed safely.

With the story comes a number of points that need be considered, as many run off in the direction of the worst case scenario.

1. Was the report confirmed as a drone? To date we have seen no physical evidence and as has been seen in the past, such as the case in the UK where the drone turned out to be a plastic bag, things are not always as they first appear.
2. If it was in fact a drone, this would only be the second confirmed case worldwide, the first being the recent accident in the US with the Blackhawk helicopter. While some may say any incident is one too many, given the number of drones being used the actual accidents have basically been nil.
3. As with the Blackhawk incident, no injuries were reported and both aircraft were able to land with only minor damage. Again if this was a drone the damaged caused seems to be minimal and not the horror story that some have predicted.
4. The Minister reports that there have been 1,596 drone incidents to date for 2017 in Canada. However CADORS only shows 227 cases and recent reports from the new UAS Task Force that is part of Transport Canada reported only 74 as of Q2 2017. We are curious as to the variations in numbers being mentioned.
5. If this was an actual drone incident it is in violations of the current regulations. Either a recreational flight outside the altitude limits and distances to an aerodrome or a commercial flight that did not do proper coordination with ATC. In either case adding more laws will not solve the problem, it is already an illegal operations. What is needed is more education and more enforcement of the regulations we have now, not more laws that some will always choose to ignore.

At the end of the day incidents like this help no one, it gives drones a bad name in the eyes of the public and it causes knee jerk reactions from regulators. However we need to consider the facts and not make judgement until all the details are known, or we may have another case of a plastic bag, but the public never see that, they merely remember the Minister crying foul against drones.

We all have a responsibility to fly safe, educate others, and to provide clear, correct information on issues like this and also the good drones do. For every reported incident there are thousands of flights daily that are uneventful, many serving to grow the economy or the pure enjoyment of users.

And here in Canada, there have actually been more plane/plane incidents in the last year than confirmed drone contact/close calls.....and a drunk Sunwing pilot that tried to fly. Until they have cameras on the outside of planes to gather evidence, the claims are meaningless. At least meaningless unless the "All Mighty Marc Garneau" states from his god like throne they are all drones, which he always does. Can you tell he is not very liked in Canada?

 

[gwhuntoon]

Don't take my following statements as a disregard for safety, on the contrary, we need to fly safe and follow the rules.

My issue with all of the supposed aircraft drone near misses/collisions is a lack of evidence. In my opinion for an aircraft to hit a drone shouldn't we be seeing more drones actually flying? I get that I'm not in a major urban center, yet personally I have never actually seen someone's drone flying which wasn't my own. And of those I have seen flying, it was park flyers (planes) in parks, not drones (UAS).

On the flip side I have seen many, many Chinese lanterns.

I just think there's more hype than news. Based on my own observations, I would expect to hear of more near misses/collisions with Chinese lanterns. I've heard of none of those either.

Even if someone is breaking the rules, and flying a drone in a flight path, what are the odds of a near miss / collision?

To hear the news, we are all irresponsible, flying at or near airports and the sky is teeming with drones.

 

[Steve Carr]

 

[FlushVision]

Don't take my following statements as a disregard for safety, on the contrary, we need to fly safe and follow the rules.

My issue with all of the supposed aircraft drone near misses/collisions is a lack of evidence. In my opinion for an aircraft to hit a drone shouldn't we be seeing more drones actually flying? I get that I'm not in a major urban center, yet personally I have never actually seen someone's drone flying which wasn't my own. And of those I have seen flying, it was park flyers (planes) in parks, not drones (UAS).

On the flip side I have seen many, many Chinese lanterns.

I just think there's more hype than news. Based on my own observations, I would expect to hear of more near misses/collisions with Chinese lanterns. I've heard of none of those either.

Even if someone is breaking the rules, and flying a drone in a flight path, what are the odds of a near miss / collision?

To hear the news, we are all irresponsible, flying at or near airports and the sky is teeming with drones.

Since taking up flying UAS as a hobby, and later as a professional, I can count only two occasions where I've been present at a time that someone else rather than myself was flying a UAV. The first time was a hobby flyer flying a Mavic about a year ago who, incidentally, wasn't too concerned about breaking the law, and the second time when a guy flew his racer from the same place I had been flying. He waited for me to land and had the decency to ask me if I was O.K. with him flying from there.

I find this fact a bit surprising given the number of UAS sold. I am led to believe that the U.K. is saturated with sold units, but my experience in coming across other people flying them would tend to paint a different picture. Maybe they are all being flown, I dunno, maybe just not at the same places and times when I'm out and about.