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posted by Fnord666 on Monday October 16 2017, @08:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the smashing-news dept.

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?


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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday October 17 2017, @04:34PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday October 17 2017, @04:34PM (#583528)

    takes the plane several seconds to fully response to commands

    Yeah, what he said... a car has rubber on the road, airplanes are (typically) bigger, heavier, and pushing against air to change their direction.

    I've been in a 2 seater private plane when the pilot took evasive action from another private plane that was coming at us with ~200mph relative speed, you're going to want more than 5 seconds for that kind of action to take effect - even with small and light aircraft. It's sort of like pushing asteroids away from impact with Earth - a little push a long time before collision is much preferable to a last minute dodge attempt.

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