Mexican authorities are investigating an alleged drone collision with Boeing 737 passenger plane

Drones meeting “real aircraft” seems to be hitting the news more and more often these days. And right now the reports from social media are that it’s happened again. This time on a flight from Guadalajara to Tijuana, Mexico. While the reports that it was a drone have yet to be confirmed, that does seem to be the prevailing thought right now

The incident happened on Wednesday, December 12th, as the flight was on approach at Tijuana International Airport. FsMex and JACDEC took to twitter with news of the collision, both suggesting that a drone might have been the cause.

2018-12-12 Aeromexico B737-800 (XA-ADV) sustained damage to its radome on approach to runway 09 at Tijuana-Intl AP (MMTJ), Mexico. Flight #AM770 from Guadalajara landed safely. Unconfirmed reports indicate the aircraft may have hit a drone. https://t.co/L7aG5OlLDp pic.twitter.com/g0Mfpw1po3

— JACDEC (@JacdecNew) December 13, 2018

Desde Tijuana nos hacen llegar estas imágenes del Radomo de un B737 de Aeromexico en Tijuana.

Nuestra fuente indica que se trató de un impacto a un dron en la aproximación final. pic.twitter.com/YJhKVGKY4W

— FsMex.com (@FsMexcom) December 12, 2018

The translation of the tweet from FxMex says (Twitter-translated)…

From Tijuana We get these images of the radome of a B737 of Aeromexico in Tijuana.

Our source indicates that it was an impact on a drone in the final approximation.

Some sources, including RT, are reporting that the damage was caused by a drone as fact, when Mexican authorities are still investigating the cause. Whatever hit the plane, the pilots requested assistance from air traffic control and were able to bring the 737 down safely. There were no injuries – except to possibly a bird, if it turns out that it wasn’t a drone, after all.

Aeromexico put out a statement that “the exact cause is still being investigated” and “the aircraft landed normally and the passengers’ safety was never compromised”.

If it is a drone, this isn’t the first time an actual collision will have happened. There was an incident reported in Canada last year, and previous to that in London in 2016. Close calls are regularly being reported, and there have been at least three incidents reported with helicopters, although the drone definitely ended up losing the fight on one of those.

People, stop flying your drones near airports. It’s not only illegal in much of the world, but it’s really, really stupid.

[via RT / Transponder1200 / Courier-Tribune ]