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Boeing 737 Passenger Jet Damaged in Possible Midair Drone Hit

65 points| Animats | 7 years ago |bloomberg.com

63 comments

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[+] ken|7 years ago|reply
Unless they found pieces of bird or drone, I don't understand why there's speculation yet either way.

At jet speeds, you don't need a man-made object to explain a huge hole. Here's an example of a bird strike in a 737: https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/97238940/mass...

[+] hirundo|7 years ago|reply
To be accurate:

Boeing 737 Passenger Jet Damaged in Midair UFO Collision

[+] wlll|7 years ago|reply
It could be that because they didn't find bits of bird it makes it more likely to be a drone. I'd expect (and I have no experience here so someone with more please say if this is wrong) there to be bits of gooey, squishy or sticky bird still stuck to the plane.
[+] ryanmercer|7 years ago|reply
>Unless they found pieces of bird or drone, I don't understand why there's speculation yet either way.

Clickbait. If it's being talked about here, that article has likely (or likely will be) shared all over social media.

[+] TheSpiceIsLife|7 years ago|reply
The nose cone of passenger jets would have to be fairly thing / weak I guess? Because that's where the forward-looking radar is right?

If a bird hit anywhere else on the plane the cross sectional area of the impact zone would be fairly small in comparison to the nose cone, and probably a fair bit stronger, so we could probably expect to see less damage on a wing or tail fin as at 700 odd kilometers per hour the bird would probably be cut in two by the leading edge of a wing or tail fin?

I'm not aircraft engineer, though.

[+] setquk|7 years ago|reply
Bloomberg are good at speculative reporting!
[+] amelius|7 years ago|reply
I wonder what is behind that damaged section of the plane. Passenger seats?
[+] dsl|7 years ago|reply
The Academy of Model Aeronautics has done some amazing research on pilot interactions with drones using FAA data [1].

One of the things they found was that only 3% of drone reports from pilots are actual "close calls", the rest are observations of drones operating legally below 400 ft or cases where done is used as a catch all term (weather baloons, etc).

Another interesting thing I read from them (my bookmark is 404ing now, will try to find the link), is that of the actual incidents they investigated of drones acting recklessly in controlled airspace, all of the offending drones were operated by the military or DHS.

1. https://www.modelaircraft.org/sites/default/files/UASSightin...

[+] gesman|7 years ago|reply
Front shot of the dent shows no signs of small/sharp sub-dents or deep scratches within the main dent that would've been caused by hard object such as drone. Which kind of steers thinking toward heavy and soft object that planed collided with.

"Is goose going to be okay?"

[+] delinka|7 years ago|reply
"... can’t be tracked on radar ..."

Can I voluntarily strap a transponder to my own drone if I buy one? How small can transponders be?

[+] fnordfnordfnord|7 years ago|reply
The electronics for your typical GA transponder are primitive by modern standards and can be very small, but it would probably need to be paired with a radar reflector or else it would either remain undetected or appear as noise.
[+] dcroley|7 years ago|reply
Which has more mass, a goose or a drone? My bet is on the goose.
[+] dotancohen|7 years ago|reply
Which has more mass, a pigeon or a 5.56? Which would you rather have bump into you at it's typical flight velocity?
[+] masonic|7 years ago|reply
An African goose, or a European goose? The African goose is non-migratory.
[+] hamitron|7 years ago|reply
Yes, but which can cause more damage to a fuselage? Mass isn't the only factor
[+] ddecola|7 years ago|reply
This was at the Tijuana airport which is right next to the US border. While drones have been know to be used to smuggle contraband across the border, looking at this flight path for landing [1], the plane actually circles around over the US and then back into Mexico. It's possibly that the the strike occurred in US airspace. yikes

Note: I'm not certain that this is the flight in question. The other approach is solely in Mexico airspace. I'm also not trying to rope in drones/contraband to an already unclear situation.

[1] https://flightaware.com/live/flight/AMX770/history/20181213/...

[+] garysahota93|7 years ago|reply
Could someone correct me if I'm wrong: but I assume this is why we have altitude restrictions on consumer drones, right? Other than the technological challenges of going that high up, but it's also so we don't become burdensome on the air traffic.
[+] btilly|7 years ago|reply
Do not overestimate the technological challenges of going high up. An autonomous drone that can work at all in Denver, must also be able to operate at a mile high in Los Angeles.
[+] aeternus|7 years ago|reply
DJI drones all have altitude restrictions, but even those can be overcome without a lot of modification.

It is easy to purchase or even build a drone without any altitude or other restrictions. The vast majority of cheap drones do not have altitude restrictions.

[+] Johnny555|7 years ago|reply
The collision happened shortly before landing, so the plane may not have been that high.
[+] amelius|7 years ago|reply
Perhaps we should install the equivalent of dashcams into airplanes ...
[+] ddalex|7 years ago|reply
Something a bit more complicated than a dashcam, something that record all the sensors data and all the inputs as they are applied... maybe also the cockpit conversations....
[+] TheSpiceIsLife|7 years ago|reply
If this were an drone should we expect burns? It seems feasible for a small lithium ion battery to be damaged by an such an impact. If a damaged lithium ion battery got stuck in the nose cone things could get dramatically worse dramatically quickly.
[+] Animats|7 years ago|reply
Look at the picture. Something punched a sizable hole in the nose. That plane hit something much harder than a bird.
[+] chrisseaton|7 years ago|reply
> That plane hit something much harder than a bird.

Something like a drone? That's what the article says. It's even what the headline says.

[+] belorn|7 years ago|reply
Three months ago, a military jet fighter Saab JAS 39 Gripen crashed here in Sweden after a mid air collision with a flock of large birds.

The Swedish military has five to ten of such incidents per year, through almost all ends with the pilot doing an successful emergency landing. The crash sparked discussion that a bird warning system should be in place in order to prevent accidents in the future.