For the past several years, people have been warning that it is
only a matter of time before there is a serious incident involving
an unmanned aircraft and a large commercial passenger plane. While
there have been reports of sightings of UAS by airliners near
airports, none of these events have resulted in injuries. This has
led some to say that the threat to manned aircraft by UAS is
largely overblown. Unfortunately, today we have a reminder that the
risks are real, and that as UAS are integrated into the National
Airspace System, everyone has to take safety issues seriously.
The Canadian Transportation Safety Board has announced that it
is investigating an incident on Monday that resulted in the injury
of two persons on a Porter Airlines flight from Ottawa to Toronto.
The plane was forced to take evasive action to avoid a collision
with what the flight crew believes was a UAS that crossed its path
when the aircraft was making a landing at Toronto's Billy
Bishop
