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emshighway
2013-03-05, 09:15 AM
NYCAviation did report this first on twitter.


Pilot reports spotting 'drone' over BrooklynBy Aaron Cooper,CNN
updated 10:25 PM EST, Mon March 4, 2013

The pilot of an Alitalia jet reported he saw an unmannedaircraft
The pilot said he spotted the other aircraft while was landinghis jet at New York's JFK Airport
The FAA is investigating
(CNN) -- Was there a drone flying over Brooklyn Mondayafternoon?

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating areport from a pilot of an Alitalia passenger jet who says he saw an unmannedaircraft while landing at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.

"We saw a drone, a drone aircraft," the pilot canbe heard telling controllers on radio calls captured by the websiteLiveATC.net.

"The FAA is investigating a report... he saw a small,unmanned or remote-controlled aircraft while on final approach to Runway 31Right," according a statement sent to CNN by FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown."The sighting was approximately four to five miles west of the airport atan altitude of approximately 1,500 feet," she said.

That description puts the aircraft somewhere over Brooklynand on the other side of the airport from where the plane was coming in for alanding.

The Alitalia aircraft did not have to take any evasiveaction and landed safely at JFK.

Air traffic controllers warned other planes approaching therunway of the drone report, but at least two other pilots radioed they did notsee it.

A spokesman for the New York Police Department was not awareof the incident and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, whichoperates the airport, referred CNN to the FAA.

Unmanned aerial systems, sometimes called drones, and otherremote-controlled planes could pose a risk to larger passenger aircraft if theycollided or were sucked into an engine.

For recreational hobbyists, flying remote-controlled planesis only allowed by the FAA up to 400 feet in the air, and within sight of theoperator. If they are going to fly within three miles of an airport, they haveto let air traffic controllers know.

Flying unmanned aerial vehicles is illegal for most businesspurposes; however, governments and public entities such as police departmentscan apply for permission to operate them.

The FAA has been working to setup new rules and to safelyintegrate the use of unmanned aircraft into the national air space, and lastyear opened an "unmanned aircraft systems integration" office.

CNN's Rob Frehse contributed to this report.

megatop412
2013-03-05, 10:11 AM
How would you be able to tell the difference between a remote control airplane and an actual drone from that distance? I bet there are RCA models of drones that people fly- hell, my neighbor has an RCA F-22

moose135
2013-03-05, 10:30 AM
If it was that far away, it must have been a decent size for him to see it.

RWB
2013-03-05, 10:36 AM
If it was that far away, it must have been a decent size for him to see it.
http://www.cam-and-carrier.com/uploads/tx_templavoila/Vario_Quad_Copter_01.JPG

Big enough to haul a DSLR around
http://www.cam-and-carrier.com/uploads/tx_templavoila/Quad_Copter_01.jpg

megatop412
2013-03-05, 10:50 AM
If it was that far away, it must have been a decent size for him to see it.

I thought about that, but the smaller drones and the larger RCA's approach each other in size, don't they?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5-mjglse5E

they even have one based on the real thing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y261aJ3O4eQ

Zee71
2013-03-05, 11:05 AM
While I shooting yesterday and listening to the scanner I heard of the drone. A NYPD copter was dispatched to where the sighting may have occurred and they reported nothing was seen. Other approaching aircraft saw nothing either. Not sure how this is associated with Brooklyn since they were landing on the 31s.

Speedbird1
2013-03-05, 11:13 AM
I agree that the final approach to Rwy 31R is near Long Beach and Woodmere, which is nowhere near Brooklyn. Why was Brooklyn mentioned? Which Alitalia arrival was it, AZA 604, 610, etc?

Speedbird1
2013-03-05, 11:17 AM
Ironic that they go after airplane spotters carrying telephoto lenses and sometimes with scanners but rarely pursue guys with lasers aimed at cockpits or drones flown by remote control. Spotters are always the ones getting harrassed!

yankees368
2013-03-05, 11:26 AM
Brooklyn would be quite a sighting from approach to 31R. This just sounds quite wrong.

alberchico
2013-03-05, 11:51 AM
Wonder if it was this kind of drone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9cSxEqKQ78

But flying these things close to JFK airspace is unbelievably stupid.....

moose135
2013-03-05, 12:25 PM
Ironic that they go after airplane spotters carrying telephoto lenses and sometimes with scanners but rarely pursue guys with lasers aimed at cockpits or drones flown by remote control. Spotters are always the ones getting harrassed!
They are very aggressive about finding people pointing lasers at aircraft. When they find someone, they are prosecuted. And being asked to show ID when I'm spotting is hardly being "harrassed".

Landing Lights
2013-03-05, 01:17 PM
I wonder if instead of a drone it might have been a less common piloted aircraft that was misidentified. Maybe something like the P180 that Jason photographed at LGA yesterday.

727C47
2013-03-05, 02:47 PM
those reaper and predator drones though fairly large would be hard to see in brooklyn airspace when on finals for 31R. you are oriented to your 12 'oclock on final, and South Ozone Park is what you would be viddying, he would have to have incredibly sharp eyes and be looking west of the Aqueduct toward Starret City, a drone at that distance would be virtually invisible.

doubletest
2013-03-05, 04:07 PM
maybe it's the guy in the video that is posted on this site in Dec 2010???

http://nycaviation.com/forum/threads/38615-Aerial-Video-of-NYC-Taken-With-an-RC-Aircraft

alberchico
2013-03-05, 05:52 PM
I just hope this doesn't result in an increased police presence at nearby parks and spotting areas surrounding JFK....

Landing Lights
2013-03-05, 10:29 PM
Now that there are some additional details available, it seems like this actually did happen and was in fact much more serious than initially reported. It wouldn't surprise me if some moron thought, "hey, let's see how close we can get to the planes!" Especially since most of these quadrotors have built in cameras. However it also wouldn't surprise me if this was mostly just an accident. How possible would it be for one of these devices to lose contact with the controller and just keep moving in the same direction? While I would imagine that most of these are designed to descend when they lose contact, who is to say that here isn't a model out there that missed this crucial idea. It's still pretty stupid to operate near a known low altitude flight path, but stupidity hasn't surprised me for a long time.

emshighway
2013-03-05, 10:41 PM
WPIX is running the story tonight.

Gerard
2013-03-05, 10:45 PM
How would you be able to tell the difference between a remote control airplane and an actual drone from that distance? I bet there are RCA models of drones that people fly- hell, my neighbor has an RCA F-22

If they were coming in over Brooklyn you have the RCA field over at Floyd Bennett so maybe he would have seen one of those but from my experience back in the day watching them at FBF those guys are pretty
professional with their operations.
Wasnt there a video on here awhile baxck where some guy hooked up a camera to a RCA and flew around lower Manhattan?

alberchico
2013-03-05, 10:52 PM
If they were coming in over Brooklyn you have the RCA field over at Floyd Bennett so maybe he would have seen one of those but from my experience back in the day watching them at FBF those guys are pretty
professional with their operations.
Wasnt there a video on here awhile baxck where some guy hooked up a camera to a RCA and flew around lower Manhattan?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9cSxEqKQ78

BTW is this type of flying legal ???

Gerard
2013-03-05, 11:37 PM
WPIX is running the story tonight.

Got more info/insight here than that piece!! :eek:

Gerard
2013-03-05, 11:38 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9cSxEqKQ78

BTW is this type of flying legal ???

These guys already distancing themselves from this incident!!

gonzalu
2013-03-06, 12:53 AM
While I shooting yesterday and listening to the scanner I heard of the drone. A NYPD copter was dispatched to where the sighting may have occurred and they reported nothing was seen. Other approaching aircraft saw nothing either. Not sure how this is associated with Brooklyn since they were landing on the 31s.

Well, since you [see] brooklyn on 31 approach and actually fly over part of it while departing 31L, I guess it can work :tongue:

Mateo
2013-03-06, 01:40 AM
I happened to be listening to JFK Tower at work when this happened. It was the early AZ flight, 60U is the callsign - I don't remember off-hand which flight number it ties up to, but it was around 1300L. The Alitalia was on a regular final for 31R, so he would have been over Long Beach. I think the reporter got his directions screwed up; it has nothing to do with Brooklyn. Tower called out the report for the next half-hour or so, but no one else saw anything. The PD helo showed up about 20 minutes later, flew SE between the runways, saw nothing, and came back just a few minutes later.