Story highlights
NEW: London police seek public's help in finding operator of drone that may have struck airliner
No one was hurt and the plane wasn't damaged, but authorities worry about potential for catastrophe
Did a drone hit an airliner trying to land at London’s Heathrow Airport?
The pilot of a British Airways flight certainly thinks so, and now authorities would like to find out who might have been behind the weekend incident.
British Airways Flight BA727 from Geneva was approaching Heathrow on Sunday afternoon when what the pilot believed to be a drone struck the front of the aircraft, London Metropolitan Police said. The plane was 1,700 feet in the air at the time, police said.
The Airbus A320 landed safely, with none of the 132 passengers and five crew members on board injured, British Airways spokesman Michael Johnson said.
The plane was fine, too, he said.
Still, authorities worry that careless drone use will eventually lead to a catastrophe.
“Thankfully the aircraft landed safely but the incident highlights the very real dangers of reckless, negligent and some times malicious use of drones,” Chief Superintendent Martin Hendy, head of Metropolitan Police Service’s Aviation Policing Command said in a statement. “We continue to work with the Civil Aviation Authority and other partners to tackle this issue and ensure that enthusiasts who fly drones understand the dangers and the law.
No one has yet been arrested, but police think the drone in question may have been launched from southwest London’s Richmond Park. They searched the area for debris but haven’t yet found anything.
Authorities asked the public for help Monday, asking anyone who was at the park and might have seen anything to get in touch. They also asked anyone who finds drone debris to contact police.
Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch announced Monday that it was also looking into the incident.
‘Totally unacceptable’: Civil Aviation Authority
Designed to be cheap, simple and robust, the drones will have payloads of up to 100 kg (220lb), while the droneports will function as hubs to allow recharging, cargo loading and dropoff, as well as repairs.
With the project expected to break ground in 2016, a functioning drone delivery network could be in place as early as 2020.
"I went to Norman because I knew that there was no one else on the planet better suited than him to design this," Ledgard told CNN.
"I said, you designed the largest airport in the world -- now build me the smallest."
All the raw materials will be sourced on site, reducing transportation costs, with the droneport consisting of a 'kit-of-parts' that can be easily assembled by local communities.
"Nobody cares about the last mile in Africa," he says, highlighting the difference between the droneport idea and what Amazon and other vendors are planning to do with drones in Western markets, where unmanned aerial vehicles are touted to be the next innovative step in the final delivery of consumer goods of any type, including pizza.
"We wanted a concept that was really cheap," said Ledgard, "and the drones themselves will contain a tiny amount of super high-tech and a lot of low-tech."
Built to be robust, economical and simple to repair, they will be powered by electric engines and have a fixed wing design, more closely resembling commercial planes rather than quadrocopters.
For the initial applications, the team is looking at blood for transfusions and other life-giving supplies such as pharmaceuticals. But the network could then extend to perishable goods and e-commerce purchases.
"But even increasing your transportation capacity by a small percentage can be beneficial, especially for high value, perishable goods."
"But we're making good progress: We intend to break ground next year, and I would be very disappointed it if we didn't."
They will fly at a projected speed of about 90 km/h over lakes, rivers and mountain ridges, and offer extremely competitive costs compared to road transportation.
Ledgard, whose intimate knowledge of the continent also comes from a decade of work as news correspondent from troubled areas, envisions the idea to soon expand to other countries, with Angola, Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire as ideal candidates.
But the droneports would be useful outside of Africa as well, wherever road networks are limited, such as in Siberia, parts of Brazil and Argentina, Canada and even the North of Scotland.
Britain banned drones from royal parks in 2015 over terrorism concerns. Richmond Park is the largest of London’s eight royal parks and the biggest enclosed space in the city, according to the royal parks’ website.
Other rules for drone pilots in the UK include making sure the flying machines are always within the operator’s line of sight, not flying above 400 feet (122 meters), and staying away from airports and aircraft.
“It is totally unacceptable to fly drones close to airports, and anyone flouting the rules can face severe penalties including imprisonment,” said the statement.
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Dodging drones in the sky
The rate of close encounters between drones and planes is on the upswing United Kingdom, according to the Airprox Board, which tracks airline safety.
Aircraft had 23 close encounters from April to October 2015, with 12 classed as presenting a serious risk of collision, the board said.
Drones flying too close to commercial flights pose a serious threat to larger aircraft, and can be sucked into the engine or crash into the cockpit window, injuring or killing a pilot.
In the United States, hundreds of drones have flown dangerously close to manned aircraft in U.S. airspace, forcing pilots to sometimes take evasive action, according to Bard College’s Center for the Study of the Drone.
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A recent report, based on the center’s analysis of Federal Aviation Administration data from August 21, 2015 to January 31, 2016, said there were 519 incidents involving passenger aircraft and unmanned drones in the U.S. within that period.
That was three times as many incidents as in the same period a year earlier.
Hundreds of drones fly dangerously close to manned aircraft
CNN’s Holly Yan, Karen Smith, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Faith Karimi contributed to this report.