5,000 feet? That must be a very high end drone.
Ut us inexcusable that people would fly a drone near airports and at altitudes where they endanger airplanes.
Here’s a phrase that apparently the airlines simply made up: near miss. They say that if 2 planes almost collide, it’s a near miss. Bullsh__, my friend. It’s a near hit! A collision is a near miss.
[WHAM! CRUNCH!]
“Look, they nearly missed!”
“Yes, but not quite.”
-George Carlin
Error in original article. 152 meters= ~500 feet.
14 miles @ 300 ft/mile for a 3 degree glideslope = 4200 feet, plus about 200 feet (above the jet, per the reports) = about 4400 feet for the drone at the time of the incident.
It was probably one of the heavier drones, with bigger batteries and cameras, since the smaller ones can’t get that high (and the operator would lose sight of a smaller one at that altitude).
Put it this way: the drones that have that kind of capability have more mass than a goose, and at 200 knots closure (likely the slowest the A380 was traveling) it could do a lot of damage, considering it’s not composed of skin, bone, and feathers, but rather dense metal in its motors, batteries, and cameras.
They didn't see it until it was too late for evasive action. If they had been on a collision path, they likely would have collided even with a few seconds notice, because the A380 is not very maneuverable at that configuration and speed, and was on autopilot (slows the response from the pilot unless the autopilot is disconnected).
Thank you for flying Lufthansa...
(Very old punchline to a very old joke.)