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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.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by FatPhil on Thursday May 31 2018, @03:21PM (6 children)
"""
Military low flying is used to train military aircrew. Low flying by military aircraft is carried out across all of the UK.
Low flying means:
fixed-wing aircraft flying down to 250 feet from the ground
rotary-wing aircraft (for example helicopters) flying down to 100 feet from the ground
"""
The 500 feet is well over that 250 feet limit. So I'd be surprised if the cops weren't more to blame. What case were they investigating at the time? Or were they just out for a bit of a joyride during work hours on taxpayers' expense?
This was near Dartmoor, there's lots of military stuff going on near Dartmoor, so if there's been one, I would expect there to have been many buzzings of the tors.
Personally, I'm most perturbed that that .gov.uk is still using feet as a measurement. They'll not be landing any climate observers onto Mars any time soon.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @03:49PM (5 children)
In aviation, feet are used internationally for specifying altitude.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday May 31 2018, @04:13PM (4 children)
However, yes, that also perturbs me.
As do knots.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday May 31 2018, @05:18PM
You can get velcro shoes for grown-ups, too.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday May 31 2018, @07:18PM
Levels are only used at altitude, for vertical separation of planes in route. In most places the finest grained levels are 1000 feet.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Thursday May 31 2018, @08:12PM (1 child)
You may be interested in a bit of trivia; metric flight levels [wikipedia.org] are used in ...
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(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday June 01 2018, @12:10PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves