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: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @04:00PM (5 children)
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)
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
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
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
Bitching about downvotes = more downvotes.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday June 01 2018, @12:10AM
Flammable/inflammable, who's complaining?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford