It has recently been confirmed by the UK Airprox Board that an Airbus A321 had a very near miss with an unknown object after taking off from Heathrow Airport.
Although it is uncertain what the flying object was specifically, the pilots on-board the Airbus had been warned of reckless drone-flying before take-off.
The UK Airprox Board – who publish air-incident reports to their website – described that the pilots had spotted the “bright red object” within 20 feet of the plane when they were at approximately 3000ft.
The incident was classed as high risk because “a definite risk of collision had existed.”
The report reads: “ATC broadcast was made of a drone sighting 2NM east of the airfield. This information was repeated directly to the aircraft pilot once airborne. Autopilot was engaged and lookout maintained.
“Upon passing 3,000ft at LON 3NM during a right-turn a bright red object was observed passing down the left-hand side of the aircraft about 20ft off the left wing. Due to the speed of passing they were unable to ascertain whether it was a helium balloon or a drone. ATC were informed.”
The near-miss is similar to another incident recently reported by the UK Airprox Board where an EasyJet flight was almost struck by a done at 8,000ft at it flew from Manchester to Athens.
To read the full UK Airprox Board report, visit: https://www.airproxboard.org.uk/Reports