Every month at Heathrow, there are several drone incidents. Small privately owned drones are crashing into planes and they could cause a very serious accident, not unlikely resulting in fatalities. There are lots of cheap drones on the market, allowing nearly anyone to access and use them, which increases the risk of an accident.
Should the use of drones be regulated, for example have height restrictions? This would almost certainly stop drones crashing into planes and it could save lives. The regulations are now that you can fly them 152 meters horizontally and their air speed can reach 100 mph. Many people are not aware of these rules when they buy a drone to play around with.
An example of a recent close call was recently at Heathrow, when a drone struck the front of a landing British Airways passenger plane packed with 132 passengers and 5 crew members. Luckily, this time, nobody was hurt.
The plane had taken off from Geneva Airport and the pilot claims (it is still being investigated) that it was struck by a drone when coming into land at Terminal 5 at London Heathrow airport. The airplane was an Airbus A320 and after the incident it was inspected by engineers for damage. They judged that it would be able to continue flying normally.
Most of these air invading drones are being bought from large online stores such as Amazon and Argos. These drones are capable of producing large amounts of damage when it hits vital parts of the plane, for example the engine [in which case the results would probably be catastrophic], or the windscreen.
By Freddie and Akash