Well folks, it finally happened — a drone collided with a commercial aircraft in Canada last week, marking the first incident of its kind in North American history.
Officials say the crash went down around 3 miles away from the airport at an approximate altitude of 1,500 feet.
According to Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau, aside from the obvious, there are very strict rules as to why this incident “should not have happened.”
No excuses
Earlier this year, Canada announced safety measures making it illegal to fly recreational drones within 3.5 mi of an airport, and restricting the height of a drone’s flight to 300 feet.
The punishment for breaking the regulations include a fine of up to $20k and a prison sentence. The punishment for this drone operator has not yet been disclosed.
As expected, this is a growing problem
According to Canadian officials, there have been 1.6k drone incidents reported so far this year — 131 of which posed a threat to aviation safety.
It’s happening outside of Canada as well: issues at Dubai’s airport last year forced them to deploy a “drone hunter” (re: a drone that hunts drones), and earlier this year, a drone pilot was detained in China after flying too close to a passenger plane.
While there are no facts to back this claim, we can definitely blame this epidemic on Millennials.