Drone might have almost caused crash at Toronto airport

[RocketBrew]

Posted by Freshdaily Staff / November 14, 2016

Early this morning, a plane approaching Toronto's Billy Bishop airport had a near miss. Pilots of a Porter Airlines flight, which was about 55 kilometres east of the city, had to act quickly to avoid a mid-air collision with an object, likely a drone.

Two cabin attendants were reportedly injured in the incident, which happened at an altitude of 9,000 feet.

"The flight crew performed an evasive maneuver and two cabin crew received injuries as a result. The extent of the injuries are unknown at this time," said Transportation Safety Board of Canada Julie Leroux to the Toronto Star.

Porter Airlines and Billy Bishop Airport received accolades in a Conde Nast Travel reader survey. Billy Bishop was ranked as the fourth best international airport in the world while Porter came ninth in a list detailing the best international airlines.

 

[Badgenes]

WTF? Doesn't anyone fact check their articles any more? (not directed at you but the newspaper, I see you highlighted the altitude) 9,000 feet, really....

 

[AWD]

Hmm, 9000 feet and as that's an ATR, it was probably doing 250 knots.

I'm thinking we're missing part of the story here.

AD

 

[Badgenes]

Like the stewardess in the cockpit pouring drinks maybe? J/K

 

[Meta4]

Although it is remotely possible, at 9000 feet it is very unlikely that this was a drone (as we know them).
The FAA's drone incident database is full of dubious records like this.

I would say that there's a high probability that the 2nd report here is a recreational drone but most of the others aren't.
Back in the 60s-70s pilots reported UFOs all the time.
Now they report drones.

 

[MapMaker53]

I bet the UFO aliens are glad people are now just reporting them as errant drones.

 

[RocketBrew]

Have to bring out my favorite graphic again!...

I bet the UFO aliens are glad people are now just reporting them as errant drones.

 

[yojo182]

Anyone know assuming a phantom could stay connected at infinite distance how high could a phantom fly before the air under the props is too little to create lift. In no expert but I would guess 5-6000 feet?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[N017RW]

They're spec-ed to 6000 meters above sea level.
There's a vid about two years old showing a P2 flying at Everest base camp (~17K ft.)

 

[RocketBrew]

The DJI specifications list "Max Service Ceiling Above Sea Level" as 6,000 m (19685 ft., 3.7 miles).

There are YouTube videos claiming a flight with a Phantom 2 as high as 14,000 ft., and 11,000 ft.

But more than how high a Phantom can physically go, is how high can it go and still have enough battery capacity to return gracefully to the ground?

Anyone know assuming a phantom could stay connected at infinite distance how high could a phantom fly before the air under the props is too little to create lift. In no expert but I would guess 5-6000 feet?

 

[RocketBrew]

Transportation Safety Board can't ID object that nearly hit Ottawa-Toronto Porter flight
Description of mystery object far from shore doesn't match any known drone, TSB says
CBC News Last Updated: Nov 22, 2016 5:07 PM ET

Canada's Transportation Safety Board (TSB) said Tuesday that it can't identify the mysterious flying object that nearly collided with a Porter flight descending into Bill Bishop Toronto City Airport last week.

A TSB spokesperson said investigators, who initially believed the flying object may have been a drone, have done as much as they can to figure out what it was. It's unlikely the object was an unmanned aerial vehicle, the TSB said, as it was flying higher and farther out from shore than most drones can go.

Pilots thought the object flying at around 9,000 feet may have been a balloon, but didn't take any chances and took evasive action to dodge it. Two flight attendants suffered minor injuries as the Ottawa-Toronto flight zig-zagged over Lake Ontario near Pickering.

None of the passengers on board were injured.

The TSB spokesperson said the incident will be added to a database, but no formal report will be filed about the incident.