The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigation an incident where a drone was seen flying very close to a Southwest Airlines passenger jet on Friday Afternoon.
Drone flies dangerously close to commercial aircraft
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating an
incident in which a drone was seen flying very close to a
Southwest Airlines passenger jet as it came in to land in Texas.
Southwest flight 28 was about a mile from Dallas Love Field
Airport on its flight from Houston to Dallas when a quadcopter
drone was seen near the left wing of the Boeing 737, the local
NBC affiliate reported.
“It was close enough to Love Field that the air traffic
controller was able to see it from the tower,” FAA spokesman Lynn
Lunsford told the Dallas Morning News.
He added that the plane didn’t need to take evasive action.
Dallas police confirm that the drone was spotted at 1:55 p.m.
local time. According to the FAA, air traffic controllers could
see the drone from their control tower.
In addition to ground units, the Dallas police dispatched Air
One, its police helicopter force, to help look for the drone, but
it were unsuccessful in its search.
The plane landed at Love Field Airport just before 2 p.m.
Earlier in 2015, the FAA drafted regulations that would ban the use of civilian drones that aren’t within
the direct vision of their human operator. This restriction would
also apply to Amazon, the tech giant with ambitions to have
autonomous drones fly packages straight to the doorsteps of
customers.
The so-called ‘Commercial UAV Modernization Act,’ proposed by
Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) in March, would loosen restrictions on commercial usage. The
bill would allow companies to operate small, unmanned drones for
various commercial purposes, such as mapping crops and surveying
construction sites.