Just how close can a drone get to an airliner.

Safe or dangerous? Tell me below in the comments. This is not me flying BTW, no really.

This video was posted on Facebook but deserves a bigger audience. If the FAA catch up with this FPV pilot what should be done. I notice that several of my FB friends are friends with him. I would have thought at least an unfriend was in order.

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[reefk]

I am an airline pilot, and I am not worried about a collision with a COTS drone. Airliners hit much bigger birds, and that's usually at speeds greater than 300 knots, and sometimes at much greater altitudes.
The consumer/hobbyists/racing types rarely get above 2000-3000' feet which is usually where have slowed down for the approach to land or on the climb out (250 knots or below), in this video, that A320 is on final approach, usually about 130-140 knots.
If anything, unless straight on the nose/leading edge, contact would be glancing and would not cause any kind of serious structural damage. That is simply my opinion, a crash could theoretically happen, but I believe the risk to be extremely minimal.
(the risk does increase with helicopters, smaller GA aircraft etc..)

HOWEVER, this is where I think it gets very dangerous, it could get sucked into an engine!
While birds are flesh and organic matter that can sometimes be "digested" by the engine, I have hit/sucked in a few birds over the last decade of commercial flying. But that is not always the case.... yearly, there are countless engine failures because of bird strikes, just never as popular as the Hudson river miracle.

A lithium battery, a go pro, carbon body, electrical composites, antennas etc... could cause a serious problem to that engine (uncontained damage/fire being the worst case scenario), on short final where the margin for error is small, and time is limited.

[LUNCHBOXFPV]

thats crazy, this is going to be a huge conversation piece about dones

[Skyerzen]

And to all those calling this a fake. It isn't. I am a digital artist and I can tell

[Skyerzen]

That's a racing drone. They are tiny. Cannot really damage an airliner in the event of a collision. Still, quite a quick one to keep an airliner in frame for so long. Even knowing this isn't dangerous at all, I still agree this kind of flying should not be allowed.

[PatrickMcAlee]

I fly professional and in the airshow world, I wish the public would open their damn eyes. Remember that small movie, what was it called Sully? Yeah, that's what a flock of birds do to in engine. Imagine a drone!!! These things can kill people folks, so those of you thinking this is "cool", just like the idiots out there that hit me with lasers, my family, and possibly yours, are in danger each and every time this occurs!!

[thomasdollenmayer]

The issue is the proximity of the flight to the airport. FAA should have the FBI bring him in and prosecute for violation of federal law. If the jail time is long enough, nobody else will do this again.

[roughriderfishing]

hasn't anybody learned from all the other airliner situations that have happened in the past and not to fuck around with them??? it's all over youtube how drone have even crashed into the planes causing serious damage. To anyone who plans on pulling these kinda stunts, DONT DO IT! This is why the FAA wants to knock all of us down. Please respect that 5 mile/400ft limit....

[rapidcabin]

A dot appears on the horizontal stabilizer at :22 and leaves at :23. CGI artifact?

[researchair]

If I was on that airliner I would be looking for him!

Not really any more risk than a bird flying into the engine.
These jets are built to withstand that easily.
Plus the drone pilot isn't trying to fly near the jets or the plane... he's hundreds of meters away.

The lens makes him seem closer than he really is. The sheer scale of this plane make it so it wouldn't fit in the shot if he was as close as some are trying to make it seem.

[DanUT]

You can see a light on the right horizontal stabilizer right in the middle at 0:22.  I'm not sure if flight sims would even add that on there.

[ahaveland]

Scary AF.
I'm all for freedom to fly, but this is way above uncool.

[AlexKingMN]

If you look at the last Vegas airport on Google Earth, you will notice the buildings pretty closely match what is seen in the video, and on approach to the airport. Even if the plane was faked, the flight was likely real.

[REDROBRCFPV]

Why even share footage like this.... just delete this.

[tastiger]

Mass hysteria, death and destruction as 1200 drones attack Olympic games in Korea. To their disapdisappointment, mass media and airline pilots couldn't print that this time as it didn't happen😊

[middleagedbaldguy]

Wouldnt the jets airspeed be higher at that altitude/point in its approach?

[planesandbikes]

this is a video capture of Grand Theft Auto V, with the miniquad add-on module. can google for similar videos recorded from this game. very real, once you put it through a crude youtube upload filter at a low quality bitrate

[locouk]

It’s a very potential risk to both out hobby and the manned aircraft, I’m sure the trash tabloids are going to make a hell of a big noise about this incident.

[chrisswisher]

If I knew a bank robber, I would turn him in in a heartbeat. The person that breaks the law, particularly when other peoples lives are at risk, should be caught. Protecting an identity just to increase video/page views seems somewhat complicit. I will ask again, who posted this?

[Accrecon]

these type of flyers put our hobby/business interests at risk..As the primary reason for doing this.. just plan stupid putting anybody at risk...