BA flight carrying 242 passengers narrowly missed drone over Windsor | UK News

A British Airways flight with up to 242 passengers on board came ‘very close’ to colliding with an illegal drone, a pilot has revealed.

After taking off from Heathrow Airport, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was climbing at 3,000ft over Windsor when the pilot spotted the drone just 60ft away.

The plane was already travelling at around 270mph when the near-miss happened on the flight to Montreal, Canada, at 8pm on July 25 this year.

According to a report by the UK Airprox Board, it was rated as a Category A incident, meaning there was a serious risk of a collision.

The pilot wrote in the report: ‘It was apparent that whilst it was very close, the drone would pass below and to their left.

‘The drone was white, with multiple props but no lights.’

The plane is said to have passed just 20ft above the drone and 60ft away horizontally, leading the pilot to describe the risk of a collision as high.

Drones are legally allowed to fly at a maximum height of 400ft – this device was being blown at more than seven times that limit.

Air traffic controllers said the pilot radioed through to say that ‘they had passed a drone very close on the left-hand side, when passing 3,000ft’.

Heathrow’s control tower was then passed the information ‘in order that subsequent departures could be made aware of the sighting’.

UKAB, which assesses near misses in UK airspace, concluded: ‘In the board’s opinion the reported altitude and/or description of the object were sufficient to indicate that it could have been a drone.

‘The board considered that the pilot’s overall account of the incident portrayed a situation where providence had played a major part in the incident and/or a definite risk of collision had existed.’

British Airways said the aircraft continued to its destination without any issues.

The airline said its pilots report incidents so the authorities can investigate and take appropriate action.

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