Aircraft have been brought down by solitary birds before.
Your reply contributes to the fear mongering - keep it in perspective. Read my statement again: "
A solitary drone in an accident with an airliner is never going to bring down the airplane." No multi-engine airline aircraft has ever been brought down by one bird. Find me a reference that says otherwise.
I never said anything about small single-engine aircraft because the news article was promoting fear mongering to the flying public. I only know of a few single-engine Cessnas in scheduled airline use. Yes, there have been fatal accidents in singles from bird strikes, but again - keep it in perspective.
On April 7, 1981 a Lear 23 (Oh, wait, that's a twin-engine aircraft) at 4000 ft over Cincinnati, OH struck a loon estimated at 8 pounds that penetrated the right windscreen, killing the copilot and injuring the pilot.
On December 26, 1991 a Piper PA31 (Another twin) at Maasi-Mara, Kenya, A 12 pound White headed vulture struck the aircraft and penetrated the windshield at about 250 feet. The aircraft lost control and crashed, killing all nine passengers and crew.
On January 25 1992 a Cessna 401 (two engines, again) at the same Maasi-Mara, Kenya airport the aircraft in cruise struck a bird suspected to be a Marabou stork weighing about 13 pounds. The impact caused separation of a wing tip fuel tank and aileron. All seven passengers and crew were killed.
On January 20, 1995 a Dassault Falcon 20
business jet (not a scheduled airline) taking off from Le Bourget Airport, Paris crashed after the airplane caught fire from a bird strike.
The greatest loss of life from a bird strike was October 4, 1960 when an Electra 188 taking off from Boston, MA ingested starlings into three of its four engines. Engine one was shut down and engines two and four lost power. The aircraft stalled and crashed into Boston Harbor, killing 62 of the 72 passengers and crew.
Keep it in perspective. In smaller aircraft, one bird can cause a crash, but it is exceedingly rare. (The data I quoted is from a site that caters to fear mongering: Airsafe.com).
There is not a single report of a multi-engine transport class aircraft crashing as a result of a single bird. From that I claim that a solitary drone is unlikely to cause a transport class airline crash.
Also, airline (transport) aircraft are certified to 14 CFR §25 which do have to withstand a 4-pound bird strike into the engines (14 CFR §25.571) and wind screens (14 CFR §25.775). Smaller aircraft are certified to 14 CFR §21 which has no such requirement.