Mexican authorities are investigating an alleged drone collision with Boeing 737 passenger plane
Dec 15, 2018
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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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 ]
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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13 responses to “Mexican authorities are investigating an alleged drone collision with Boeing 737 passenger plane”
Don’t use drones, but if there isn’t mandatory classes, there should be.
Only if you want to fly recreationally
Glen Wilkerson They have no idea what it is that struck the plane, you’re nuts
Hey DIYPHOTOGRAPHY, since you guys say it’s still unconfirmed in your poorly written article, maybe you shouldn’t focus on something that’s still up for debate. Go spend your time writing useful articles and stop fear mongering
They might want to reconsider plane design if a little plastic drone did that.
Its not the plane design, it’s the fact that planes go 300-400km/h in the sky. It doesn’t even matter what the plane is made of at that point. It’s also the reason why birds are also dangerous to planes, and they aren’t made of plastic.
You seriously think that there is no such design to protect the plane nose from hitting a plastic toy at 400km/h?
Have you ever seen a formula 1 driver cage and full throttle solid wall crashes?
I was actually wrong about the top speed of commercial speed. They can go 900km/h. The formula one car does not go airborne. Planes of that size have to be as light as possible as well as protect the cabin inside. Also, drones that go that high are also made of carbon fibre. This is a matter of simple physics. Remember, a squishy bird can ground a Boeing 737/747. We saw that when the plane had to make the landing in the Hudson River.
I think the title should say “People, stop flying your drones near airports. It’s not only illegal, but it’s really dangerous.” I don’t see stupid there. It’s just irresponsible.
ban the drones… pleaese
I live in a fairly large city and in the last 5 years since drones have become so popular I’ve only seen about a half dozen drones in the sky yet I’ve seen tens of thousands of geese. And based on the truly limited number of aircraft strikes that actually do occur this shows that the chance of it being a drone that an aircraft struck is infinitesimally small unless it was an intentional act and all the laws in the world will not stop intentional acts. Its time to put a stop to the fear mongering and legislative abuse against drones.
Yet another unfounded media report damning the use of drones.
Almost shot one down that was flying over my property over the weekend, it got away before I could grab my shotgun.