UAVs thrice prevented the landing of aircraft in JFK
At the airport to them. In recent days, John F. Kennedy (New York) has experienced three unpleasant incidents, which are now widely discussed in the media. Unfortunately, they give cards in the hands of opponents of civilian UAVs. For drones, very strict rules for use are now in force, but it is supposed to weaken them in the near future. Now the chances are that the rules will be revised.
When landing at one of the busiest airports in the world, airplanes passed dangerously close to unmanned aerial vehicles, judging by the recordings of the audio conversations of the pilots.
According to CNN, the first incident occurred with a JetBlue flight 1834 on July 31 at 14:24 local time, when the ship was approaching the airport. In an audio recording, the pilot says that the drone went right below the plane at a distance of about 30 meters. At this time, the plane flew at an altitude of 240-270 meters.
On the same day at about 5 p.m., a Delta 407 flight with 154 people on board was preparing to land when the pilot noticed a drone under the right wing. The distance was about the same, 30 meters. Here is the audio recording of the negotiations of the Delta 407 pilot with the dispatcher, intercepted by the LiveATC.net service.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported that no aircraft needed to undertake an evasion maneuver. Both cars landed safely. Now the incidents are being investigated by the FAA. Perhaps they are interconnected.
Under current rules , UAVs are prohibited from approaching closer than 8 km to the airport without prior notice to the airport operator or the control tower operator. They are also forbidden to climb to a height of more than 120 meters. But FAA officials said they receive messages from pilots about observed drones every day.
For the third time , shuttle America pilots noticed a drone near JFK on August 2. The distance to it was not reported, but the plane flew at an altitude of 315 meters - much higher than the UAV allowed for flights.
Experts say that if the UAV is sucked into the engine, it can destroy it. Even worse, if it gets into the windshield of the cockpit. Some paranoid people fear that an attacker might specifically use a drone to attack an aircraft.
Pilots themselves say that owners of such devices need to be sent to jail exponentially. When the others find out about this, they "will not do such idiotic things." There is also a proposal to limit the maximum flight altitude of drones in hardware: 120 meters - and it automatically turns off.
Permission to fly private UAVs
Fortunately, incidents at the airport. John F. Kennedy was not influenced by the FAA's immediate plans. Yesterday, the federal government gave permission for the commercial / scientific use of 1,008 drones nationwide. They are allowed to carry out commercial flights throughout the country, except for restricted areas.
If you look at the list of specific firms and individuals who have received permits, then among them it is difficult to find those involved in the delivery of goods (I did not find). There is aerial photography, inspection of power lines and other objects, cartography, video broadcasting of sporting events and weddings, cartography, surveillance of private territory and so on.
Goods delivery
At the same time, some use multicopter to deliver goods without any permission.
July 29 at Mansfield Prison. Ohio, guards noticed that a drone dropped a packet into the prison. It turned out 144.5 g of tobacco, 65.4 g of marijuana and 6.6 g of heroin.
As always, the black market is one step ahead of the legal business.