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Airprox Board Says Police Drone and Military Jet had 'Near-Miss'

posted by janrinok on Thursday May 31 2018, @02:05PM   Printer-friendly
from the government-v-government dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A police drone had a "near-miss" with a fighter jet travelling at 520mph (836km/h), a report has revealed.

The drone's operator "honestly believed" the two would collide in mid-air, according to [PDF] the UK Airprox Board. It said the risk of a crash above Throwleigh, Devon, was "high" but the officer had lowered the drone quickly. Devon and Cornwall Police said it had notified Airprox, which was "content that there was no blame nor any lessons to be learned".

The drone was flying at an altitude of about 300ft (90m) on 16 January, according to the report. "The jet came into view from right to left and seemed to pass by the drone at the same altitude; it looked like the jet was within 200m laterally of the drone. Once the jet was in view it started banking to the right and [the operator] honestly believed it was going to collide with the drone."

"The jet continued and was followed a few seconds later by a second jet."

The F-15 pilot, who was flying at an altitude of 500ft (152m), could not see the drone, the report added. The board said the case had prompted discussions about whether the service which helps the military plan routes through UK airspace should incorporate information from other sources.

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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by Thexalon on Thursday May 31 2018, @03:09PM (12 children)

    by Thexalon (636) on Thursday May 31 2018, @03:09PM (#686767)

    Per George Carlin: "When 2 planes almost collide, they call it a 'near miss'. It's a 'near hit'! A collision is a near miss! 'Look, they nearly missed ... but not quite!'"

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Thursday May 31 2018, @03:28PM (10 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Thursday May 31 2018, @03:28PM (#686775) Homepage
    I like Carlin, but he shouldn't enter an English semantics argument with a well-educated native. It was a miss. That's agreed. But what kind of miss was it - were they near or far - whichever it is, it will require an adjective to modify the noun. They were near, so it was indeed a near miss. And definitely not *any* kind of hit.

    He's confusing "[it was] a near miss", where the adjective modifies the noun, with "[it was] nearly a miss", where the adverb "nearly" modifies the verb "was". Unsurprisingly, these only-loosely related sentences have different meanings.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

    • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @04:00PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @04:00PM (#686793)

      Doesn't even matter. The fact is that the meaning of words in a language depends only on how they are actually used by speakers of that language.

      So English speakers use the words "near miss" to mean that something almost occurred but didn't, then that's what those words mean in English.

      Words can change meaning over time. Typically this means that by the time someone starts complaining about "misuse" of particular words or phrases, the complaining person is already wrong: that ship has long sailed.

      • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by FatPhil on Thursday May 31 2018, @04:09PM (3 children)

        by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Thursday May 31 2018, @04:09PM (#686797) Homepage
        I'm defending only English, the language of the news story. Carlin wasn't a native speaker of English, he spoke American English, which is a distinct beast. Quite why a comment about how an American, perhaps deliberately, misinterprets an English phrase for comic effect isn't considered off topic, whilst my subsequent clarification of the headline is so tainted, boggles the mind.
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @05:08PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @05:08PM (#686823)

          Well we all know that comment moderation here is 100% logical, so now we just have to find out what YOU did wrong!!

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @06:10PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @06:10PM (#686855)

          Cause your being a pedantic ahole. It was a comedy sketch. No one here cares about the Queen's English.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @08:52PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @08:52PM (#686925)

          Bitching about downvotes = more downvotes.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday June 01 2018, @12:10AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 01 2018, @12:10AM (#686994) Journal

        Typically this means that by the time someone starts complaining about "misuse" of particular words or phrases, the complaining person is already wrong: that ship has long sailed.

        Flammable/inflammable, who's complaining?

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday May 31 2018, @04:58PM (3 children)

      by bob_super (1357) on Thursday May 31 2018, @04:58PM (#686820)

      Probably should be written down as "near-miss" (hit) versus "near miss" (missed but close).
      Somebody please go ask Carlin whether he meant to say the dash.

      • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday May 31 2018, @08:07PM (2 children)

        by Thexalon (636) on Thursday May 31 2018, @08:07PM (#686907)

        Somebody please go ask Carlin whether he meant to say the dash.

        Easier said than done, since he died about a decade ago. Or, more precisely, asking him is easy, but getting an answer back is extremely difficult.

        --
        The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.

        • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Friday June 01 2018, @12:20AM

          by coolgopher (1157) on Friday June 01 2018, @12:20AM (#686998)

          So you're saying he'd be subject to a hear miss?

        • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday June 01 2018, @12:44AM

          by Gaaark (41) on Friday June 01 2018, @12:44AM (#687002) Journal

          So he suffered from a near miss in living?

          --
          --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @09:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @09:24PM (#686934)

    near != nearly