A Lufthansa passenger jumbo jet had a narrow escape on Friday after a drone aircraft nearly collided with the airliner during its landing approach to Lon Angeles International Airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) took note of the issue and issued a statement to the press detailing the chain of events on that fateful night.
Apparently, the close encounter between the two aircraft occurred at nearly 1:30 pm on Friday when the passenger jet was at an altitude of 5,000 feet (152 meters). According to the pilot, the unmanned aircraft came as close as 61 meters (200 feet) over the Lufthansa jet when it was approximately 22.5 km away from the FAA.
The Los Angeles Police Department was immediately informed about the incident.
The FAA, however, did not release the details pertaining to the origin of the flight and the total number of onboard personnel.
Meanwhile, Senator Dianne Feinstein who of California had reiterated her call for new safety features on drones across the country. The Senator had already introduced a new legislation to enforce new safety features on all unmanned aircraft used for recreational or business purposes.
“This is one more incident that could have brought down an airliner, and it’s completely unacceptable,” she said in a statement.
Worth noting, the FAA has so far received at least 42 complaints of drones flying near LAX in an unsafe and potentially hazardous way in the past one year.