On Tuesday 15th December, the US airline plane flight US132 crash landed in the River Thames. There were no casualties yet two passengers suffered minor injuries and were seen by paramedics on the site of the incident. It has been confirmed by the Metropol and the Special Operations Unit that the incident was caused by a drone collision and that there is now a criminal investigation underway.
Located at Purfleet, Essex, the plane had an electrical circuit which lead to a small fire causing both engines to disable where an emergency landing now had to take place. The AAIB investigation confirmed that this was due to a drone collision that was found by the British transport police. Safety measures took place and the pilot landed the aircraft on River Thames and passenger who suffered chest pain during and after the incident were taken to Queens Hospital in Romford, East London and no heart attacks or major injuries were reported.
It has been updated that the drone that had cause the incident. However, even with the luck that there were no causalities or serious injuries to passengers or airline crew, the question must be asked, what further problems would these drones cause? Are they a risk to our safety? In a recent press conference, William Stewart, chief investigative officer from Metropol stated that ‘there will be more localised swat teams on stand point’ reassuring that additional safety measures will take place in order to prevent and prepared for the possibility of an incident similar to this reoccurring. Metropol and AAIB however do claim there are far bigger threats to airlines than just drones, software crashing for example.
Worries have gathered around the effect on both human and nature life. When asked about concerns on wildlife in the area of the incident Murray Russell commissioner of AAIB and Metropol both agreed that issues regarding human life and safety are the current issue that must be dealt with, until then wildlife and nature will not necessarily be a priority post incident.
The incident is still being dealt with and an investigation will be continuously held surrounding the conspiracy of the drones impact on the air vehicle crash.