A drone hovers in airspace outside the safety perimeter surrounding St. Louis Lambert International Airport as an airliner approaches for a landing on March 10, 2025. — AP
WASHINGTON: A commercial airliner was on final approach to San Francisco’s international airport in November when the crew spotted a drone outside the cockpit window. By then it was too late “to take evasive action”, the pilots reported, and the quadcopter passed by their windshield, not 300 feet away.
A month earlier, a jetliner was flying at an altitude of 4,000 feet near Miami’s international airport when its pilots reported a “close encounter” with a drone. In August, a drone came within 50 feet of clipping the left wing of a passenger jet as it departed Newark International Airport.
