African airline reports drone collision with passenger jet

[LuvMyTJ]

An African airline reported Friday that one of its planes collided with a drone while approaching the airport in Tete, Mozambique.
Linhas Aereas de Mozambique (LAM) said on its Facebook page that the Boeing 737-700 was approaching Tete from Maputo on Thursday about 5:15 p.m. local time with 86 people aboard when the incident happened. The plane landed safely without any injuries. [read more at source linked below]

SOURCE: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/06/african-airline-reports-drone-collision-passenger-jet/96237622/

 

[User Name]

Judging by the damage, that can't have been a typical consumer drone. If it was a drone, it would have had to have been a very large custom or something.

 

[shanmoon]

Not sure I agree. I've seen what a small bird can do to a composite motorglider wing at much slower speeds. I could see a solo or a phantom doing massive damage to a plane traveling hundreds of miles an hour... F =M * A (force == mass x acceleration). The mass of the solo might be small but the A would be pretty big due to the speed of the airliner.

 

[User Name]

My disbelief is more over the sheer area the damage was sustained over. Near the back of the nose cone, that has to be over 3 feet from the scrape at the bottom to the hole at the top. I just can't imagine how a Solo/Phantom size drone would hit in the front where the damage is there, and somehow end up causing damage over that large of an area towards the back.

Also, in the front where we have to assume was the location of the initial impact, there's no scratches or gouges in the paint, only pillowy dents and the cracks in the fiberglass (or whatever material the nose is made of). I would find it highly unlikely an object as dense as a Solo/Phantom, with 4 solid metal motors at the corners, with 4 whirling props, would not leave any scratches, scrapes or gouges from an impact that would otherwise cause that much damage.

Furthermore, if you read the reports, all the crew reported was hearing an impact. None of them reported seeing anything, bird, drone or otherwise. The subsequent claim of it being a drone was the result of not finding blood or feathers. I'm sorry, but because they didn't find X, doesn't mean it was Y.

I'm not in any way downplaying the risk or potential damage from drone/aircraft collisions. But I also know that there's a lot of hysteria and a blind propensity to scream "it was a drone" every time a plane hits anything.

 

[LuvMyTJ]

NOT A DRONE! - BREAKING: Mozambique incident NOT a drone collision - The Digital Circuit

 

[User Name]

NOT A DRONE! - BREAKING: Mozambique incident NOT a drone collision - The Digital Circuit

Unfortunately, all most people will remember is the initial headlines claiming it was a drone, because that's what aligned with their existing views/hysteria.

This is really fitting, and it's unfortunate more people aren't as astute:

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