ARLINGTON, Va. — As more people buy and fly drones, more and more of the unmanned aircraft are interfering with air traffic.
The latest example came last Sunday, which saw at least 12 separate incidents of drones flying too close to planes and airports. In the D.C. area, fighter jets had to be scrambled as a precaution after a drone was spotted by a pilot in highly restricted airspace over the U.S. Capitol.
In other cases, planes nearly hit these drones. In Los Angeles, a JetBlue pilot was startled when he spotted a white drone off his aircraft’s left wing. Just hours later, a quadcopter drone whizzed underneath an Allegiant Air flight on the same runway.
Close encounters between rogue drones and aircraft were unheard of last year, The Washington Post reports. So far this year, nearly 700 incidents have been reported — triple the number of total events last year.
But as more people buy these mostly unregulated aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration deals with more reports of close encounters. Back in February, the agency set out preliminary rules about what types of unmanned aircraft can be flown and where.
