Shock report reveals Heathrow passenger jets’ near-misses with drones in skies over capital

A passenger jet had a near-miss with two drones over London, a shock report reveals today.

The A320 Airbus was at about 9,000ft over north-east London, preparing to begin its approach to Heathrow, when the pilot suddenly spotted two drones about 100 metres below.

“In the left-hand turn, when passing north, a red and white object was seen on the nose of the aircraft,” said a near-miss report on the incident, shortly after midday on April 22.

“Within a fraction of a second it was seen to pass down the left side of the aircraft, narrowly missing the left wing.

“Both the First Officer and he [the pilot] were convinced that it would hit the left wing/engine.”

The captain assessed the object to be similar to the drones seen just seconds beforehand. They were commercially available quadcopter machines.

“If this was the type involved then the drone would certainly have passed well within 50 metres of the flight deck,” the report added.

The incident is classed as “Category A”, meaning there was a “serious risk of collision”.

Another “Category A” near-miss with a drone happened on May 4 at 10.50am with an A319 Airbus jet coming in to land at Heathrow.

“The first officer saw what he at first thought was a bird in front of the aircraft and slightly left and above the nose,” says the report. “As it came past the flight deck, it took avoiding action, pitching away from the aircraft and it became apparent that it was a drone, black and rectangular in shape, and about 1ft on its longest edge.”

It passed down the left-hand side of the aircraft “with a vertical distance of no more than 30ft and just over the left wing-tip”.

By the time the captain was alerted, the object had already gone past.

On May 6, the captain of an A320 Airbus, which had left Luton airport, saw a drone at 12.25pm passing about 10ft to 20ft above and down the right-hand side of the aircraft.

The reported risk of collision was assessed as “very high”.