Let's be honest here: some drone pilots are stupid and fly very close to airfields. Big commercial airfields with tons of passenger traffic. Why? Ignorance, lack of knowledge, craziness, lack of imagination or just plain stupidity. On the other hand, commercial airplane pilots see drones everywhere. Few weeks ago grand hysteria: drone hit a plane at Heathrow. Who did it? Why? Laws should be more restrictive! Two days later: do, drone did not hit anything. So, what pilot reported? Probably it was white plastic bag. Eh...

The main problem with drones and commercial air traffic is that nobody know what would happen if for example DJI Phantom would hit Boeing 747. We more less know what happens when a goose hits one. It happens quite often. We also know when happens when a turtle hit and airplane on runway. Yes, it happens too. Hey, we even knows what happens when frozen chicken hits windshield. But drone? "Keine Ahnung" like Germans would say.

Now there is chance our knowledge on that topic would improve. EASA, European Aviation Safety Agency, decided to create a task force that will investigate potential results of drone-airplane collision. It will:

  • investigate incidents
  • analyze existing research
  • investigate weak points of airplanes: windshields, wings, engines in context of UAV collision
  • consider the possibility to do further research and perform actual tests

First results should be available at the end of July.