A Canadian passenger plane landed safely after it was hit by a drone in the first case of its kind in the country, a cabinet minister said Sunday.
With increasing numbers of unmanned aerial devices in the skies, collisions are still rare, but authorities around the world are looking at ways to keep jetliners out of harm's way.
The Canadian incident happened last Thursday when a drone collided with a domestic Skyjet plane approaching Jean-Lesage International Airport in Quebec City, Transport Minister Marc Garneau said in a statement.
"This is the first time a drone has hit a commercial aircraft in Canada and I am extremely relieved that the aircraft only sustained minor damage and was able to land safely," said the minister, a former astronaut.
The aircraft, carrying six passengers and two crew, was struck on its right wing at an altitude of about 450 meters (about 500 yards) and roughly three kilometers (two miles) from the airport, according to Le Journal de Quebec newspaper.
Well, don't keep us in suspense! Who won, the locomotive or the bumblebee?
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday October 16 2017, @11:21PM (2 children)
The USAF handles the problem, among other means, by periodically firing gunshots (automated, using blank ammo) around the airport to scare the fuckers away.
Bird strikes at jet-flight speeds are no-joke, they'll crack your canopies and blow out your engines.
Fun-fact: the USAF uses a Chicken Gun [wikipedia.org] to simulate high-speed bird strikes during R&D.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 16 2017, @11:59PM
Wikipedia took all the fun out of it, specifically, the urban myth about the frozen chickens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCQ2oZtVNpg [youtube.com]
http://www.snopes.com/science/cannon.asp [snopes.com]
(Score: 2) by Post-Nihilist on Tuesday October 17 2017, @12:53AM
Sadly most corvid, get used to it.
Be like us, be different, be a nihilist!!!