Drones involved in SEVEN near-accidents with aircraft in the North East, investigation shows

There were more than 300 near-misses between drones and aircraft across the UK, even before the major disruption seen at Gatwick and Heathrow this winter.

This includes the seven near-accidents in the North East, which is served by Newcastle International and Durham Tees Valley Airports, as well as a number of smaller club and private airfields.

Of the other incidents, three took place in the skies above Tyne & Wear and two in County Durham.

In the most serious incident – listed as a category A serious incident – the pilot of a Cessna 404 twin-engined light aircraft flying near Bolam Lake reported a drone missing his wing tip by just six to eight feet.

The pilot reported that he was travelling north when he saw a large blue object slightly to the left of his aircraft’s nose at exactly the same level.

He was startled and it took him a few seconds to realise that it was a drone.

He had no time to react and the drone passed down his left-hand side, missing the wing tip by about six to eight feet.

Although the incident, which happened on July 18, 2017, only lasted for five or six seconds, the pilot estimated that the drone was one metre long and half a metre wide. It was dark blue and either stationary or slow moving.

Members of the Airprox Board, which examines incidents and looks to approve safety, said the drone was being flown beyond practical visual line of sight (VLOS) limits and was endangering other aircraft at that location and altitude.

The board agreed the drone had been flown into conflict with the C404 and said the pilot’s inability to avoid it ‘portrayed a situation where providence had played a major part in the incident and/or a definite risk of collision had existed’.

The second incident in Northumberland involved a 35-seater EMB135 plane, which was approaching Newcastle Airport at about 2,500ft above the North Sea, just north of Seaton Sluice, on February 16, 2016, when the pilot reported an unidentified object ‘about 200ft over their heads’.

The report says it was ‘black beneath and red on top, was disc-shaped and the size of large gull. It seemed to be moving with the wind away from the shore.’

While the Airprox Board couldn’t discount the object might have been a balloon, it thought the estimated size and appearance of the object made it more likely to have been a drone.

But in perhaps the most concerning incident – listed as a category B major incident – a B777 aircraft taking off from Newcastle International Airport noticed an object which the crew initially thought to be a large black bird.

Upon closing in, the crew identified it as a drone, but it was too late to avoid it and the drone passed just under the nose of the aircraft.

An investigation report said the incident – which took place near Backworth, four nautical miles from the airport – saw the drone pass just 100ft from the commercial airliner, which can seat up to 396 passengers.

The aircraft was at an altitude of 4,000ft at the time of the near-miss, which happened on August 27, 2016.

Airprox said the drone had been operating at a height above that allowed by regulation.