Hero rips drone ‘Wildild West’

The swarm of privately owned drones invading the skies poses a risk similarmilar to the birds that disabled the “Miracle on the Hudson” jet, saysys the pilot who steered it to safety.

“The real problem rightght now is there is really sort of a Wild West [situation] out there in thee operation of these devices, especially the ones used for entertainment,” Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger said Sunday.

“Statistically, we’re increasing the chances of collisions with an airplane or helicopter.”

On WABC/770 AM radio, Sullenberger called for investigating potential collisions between passenger aircraft and drones (inset), or “un manned aerial vehicles."

“We really need to know how dangerous they are,” he said.

“We certainly know from over a century of aviation, and from our research and experience with the Hudson River landing, that birds that weigh only six or eight pounds . . . can bring down an airliner,” he said.

“Some UAVs, or drones, are very small and light, but they do have metal parts, like batteries and electric motors.”

Earlier this month, a black “quadcopter” drone illegally flew within 25 feet of a jetliner about to land at JFK Airport, with sources telling The Post a collision could have been “catastrophic.”

The Aug. 2 incident with Shuttle America Flight 5911 from Haiti marked the third time in as many days in which a drone was seen buzzing around JFK.

The Post reported exclusively Sunday that commercial pilots have spotted drones hovering nearby around 50 times this year while heading to JFK and La Guardia airports.

Sullenberger successfully executed an emergency water landing of a US Airways Airbus 320 in the Hudson River on Jan. 15, 2009.