Airline pilot shouted "Drone!" during a near-miss while landing at Gatwick

Wednesday, 20 November 2019 15:48

Government investigators said they believe good luck played a major part in avoiding an accident at Gatwick, when an Airbus pilot flew past a drone just before landing in July. The Air Proximity Board reported it happened after the captain of an incoming A320 had turned off their autopilot, and was landing manually, slightly right of the centre line, at 6.05pm on July 8 2019. 106 metres from the ground, according to the First Officer, the aircraft's captain shouted "Drone!" as an unmanned aerial vehicle was spotted almost directly in front of the Airbus, about 100 metres away. There was no time to make an evasive manoeuvre, the board reported, because of the speed of the incident. Investigators were told that, as the A320 passed the drone, the separation between the unmanned aircraft and the Airbus was only 20 metres. As a result of other reports of drone activity in the London area, the Airbus crew had already taken on extra fuel. As they considered the possible outcome of a drone crashing into the A320, the board relayed what the First Officer told them: "The crew believed that if the autopilot had still been engaged, and they were on the centre line, there was a very high probability that they would have struck the drone." [caption id="attachment_13286149" align="alignnone" width="1000"] Gatwick Airport: map by OpenStreetMap.org, Creative Commons copyright[/caption] The board said the same officer was, himself, a drone enthusiast and had identified the unmanned vehicle as a DJI Inspire. In a report, investigators said the drone was being flown above the permitted height of 400 feet, and had no clearance to be in the air so close to Gatwick Airport. The Air Proximity Board states its purpose is to "enhance air safety in the UK, in particular in respect of lessons to be learned and applied from Airprox occurrences reported within UK airspace."