Drones pose increasing risk to airliners near major US airports

Source: Associated Press

Drones pose increasing risk to airliners near major US airports

By AARON KESSLER and MICHAEL BIESECKER
Updated 12:03 AM EDT, April 21, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — A commercial airliner was on final approach to San Francisco’s international airport in November when the crew spotted a drone outside the cockpit window. By then it was too late “to take evasive action,” the pilots reported, and the quadcopter passed by their windshield, not 300 feet away.

A month earlier, a jetliner was flying at an altitude of 4,000 feet near Miami’s international airport when its pilots reported a “close encounter” with a drone. In August, a drone came within 50 feet of clipping the left wing of a passenger jet as it departed Newark International Airport.

The incidents were all classified as “near midair collisions” — any one of which could have had catastrophic consequences, according to aviation safety experts. They were also not isolated encounters.

An Associated Press analysis of an aviation safety database reveals that drones last year accounted for nearly two-thirds of reported near midair collisions involving commercial passenger planes taking off and landing at the country’s top 30 busiest airports. That was the highest percentage of such near misses since 2020, when air traffic dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/drones-risk-airports-planes-safety-collisions-d8bb7192173d90b46258c91152454cf3