Drone’s collision with jet raises fears
No licensing requirements for operators
MONTREAL • The twin-propeller SkyJet plane carrying six passengers was on its final descent into Quebec City last Thursday, about 460 metres above the ground, when the pilots saw something at the last minute and heard a bang. They had struck a drone, they informed the control tower.
“They didn’t see it from a mile away,” said Pierre Tremblay, director of corporate affairs for the small charter airline. “It happened very quickly, without any chance to avoid it.”
The damage was confined to “a few minor scratches on the left wing,” the airline said, and although the crew declared an emergency and firefighters were dispatched to meet the King Air 100 plane, it landed safely and no one was injured.
But the collision is the first recorded in North America between a drone and a commercial aircraft, and it has stirred debate over the safety of the increasingly popular unmanned aircraft.
On Sunday, Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau seized on the incident to step up his campaign for stricter regulation of drones. Garneau, who last June told the Montreal Gazette that a drone-plane collision was “the kind of nightmare scenario that keeps me up at night,” warned that people not respecting Transport Canada regulations could face prison and fines of up to $25,000.
“Even a bird could cause serious damage at high speeds. Imagine what a drone could do,” he said in a video statement.
Quebec City police are investigating, but they have not yet found the owner of the drone, which the pilots said was yellow and measured about 40 centimetres by 10 centimetres. The Transportation Safety Board announced Tuesday that it will send an investigation team to Quebec City.
Anyone can buy a small drone of the sort identified by the SkyJet pilots at an electronics store and start flying. At the moment, there is no licensing requirement, and it is up to the drone flyers to inform themselves of the Transport Canada regulations, including the maximum altitude of 90 metres and the requirement to stay at least nine kilometres away from airports.
Roger Williams, chairman of a Model Aeronautics Association of Canada advisory group that works with Transport Canada, said reckless drone flyers could ruin it for responsible recreational users. “We don’t want to see anyone flying one of these things into or near aircraft. That’s absolutely not acceptable to us,” he said.
The risk drones pose to commercial aircraft remains a subject of debate. Researchers at Virginia Tech’s Crashworthiness for Aerospace Structures and Hybrids laboratory have run simulations showing that a large drone could cause serious — but not necessarily catastrophic — damage to a jet engine if it were sucked in during flight. British researchers have warned that if a drone battery became lodged in a plane, it could spark a fire.
A total of 1,596 “drone incidents” have been reported to Transport Canada so far this year, of which 131 were deemed to have been of concern to aviation safety.
Responding to the Quebec City collision, Chad Budreau, the government affairs director for the Academy of Model Aeronautics, which represents model aviation enthusiasts, stressed the importance of following safety rules when flying a drone.
“Any individual flying in a careless and reckless manner should be held accountable,” he said.
Charles Goyette, chief instructor at I/Drone Montreal, a school that trains commercial drone pilots, said the number and seriousness of drone incidents is growing every year.