JetBlue flight reports striking drone while landing at JFK

[stevewhite]

JetBlue flight reports striking drone while landing at JFK

A JetBlue Airways pilot reported hitting a drone as the flight was on approach for landing at JFK Airport on Monday morning, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The plane, which was coming from Las Vegas, landed safely, and the airline and FAA said no damage or evidence of collision was found during the post-flight inspections.

The drone hit the JetBlue plane right above the cockpit and at about 3,000 feet, the pilot told an air traffic controller. The audio was recorded and obtained from ATC.com.

"We collided with a drone back there in the turn as we were coming to ASALT, just wanted to pass to you," the pilot tells an air traffic controller, referencing the waypoint for flights arriving in the New York City area.

ATC audio

Source: https://x.com/fl360aero/status/2071666599522926777

 

[Mendel]

JetBlue flight reports striking drone while landing at JFK

https://abcnews.com/US/jetblue-flight-hits-drone-landing-jfk-officials/story?id=134313280

Both the FAA and JetBlue said inspections found no evidence of a strike.

Why did you leave that out?

 

[Mendel]

Official source

Source: https://x.com/FAANews/status/2071639136897823000

The pilot of JetBlue Airlines Flight 948 reported striking a drone at approximately 3,000 feet altitude while on final approach to John F. Kennedy International Airport around 7:15 a.m. local time on Monday, June 29. A post-flight inspection did not reveal any damage to the aircraft. The FAA will investigate.

 

[Mendel]

https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/JBU948/history/20260630/0709Z/KLAS/KJFK

The aircraft was going about 200 mph at the time, so the pilots would hardly have gotten a good look at it.
For all we know, it could've been a party balloon, reflecting the early morning sunlight.
If it was a drone, hitting the aircraft at 200 mph would've at least left some scratches in the paint and rendered the drone inoperable.

 

[RobertBillyBob]

Why did you leave that out?

 

[Mendel]

View attachment 91843

I stand corrected.
In my defense, the article actually leads with that information:

 

[MapperGuy]

Far more information from the pilots is needed.
Did they hear an impact, or feel it?
Where did the drone impact the aircraft? Did it hit the windshield directly in from of them or at a wingtip?
Or was this a case of "it appeared we would hit it" but they did not actually see it impact some part of the aircraft? If they did see it hit they could have told the FAA where to look on the aircraft for the evidence of impact, so I would guess not. Of course the FAA may not be revealing all details.
Trying to figure out incidents like this from early reports in the media is a guessing game.
I would not be surprised if they saw/hit a drone given the location, some fool looking for exciting video to post on-line.

 

[JMartJr]

Just FYI:

All drones must be registered, except those that weigh 0.55 pounds or less (less than 250 grams) and are flown under the Exception for Limited Recreational Operations.

https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/register_drone

According to personal communications with a knowledgeable drone pilot, licensed and registered and all, this has led to a situation where anything other than a flimsy toy drone but one not up to pro standards wants to weigh an eyelash under 250 grams, to be as substantial as possible but not require registration.

For comparison, a baseball weighs a bit over 140 grams, an iPhone 17 Pro is about 206 grams (without case) and a can of Campbell's tomato soup weighs about 350 grams (unsure if that includes the weight of the can. A drone would spread the mass put a bit more than any of those, and presumably the blades and shafts out the the rotors would act as "crumple zones" to help diffuse the energy of the collision.

Still, I'm a bit skeptical that one could strike a plane in flight and not leave a pretty noticeable ding.
An example:

The FBI released new photos of a damaged water-dropping super scooper firefighting aircraft that collided with a drone over the Palisades Fire.

According to officials, the plane collided with a privately-owned drone, causing significant damage to it. The drone put a 3x6 hole in the aircraft, causing a 20- to 30-minute delay in the aerial firefight.

...

The pilots were unaware they hit the drone until they landed at Van Nuys Airport and the maintenance staff noticed a "fist-sized hole," according to officials.

https://abc7news.com/post/californi...oper-aircraft-flying-palisades-fire/15792412/

Not sure how to compare the speed of this plane when hit to the JetBlue case -- the Super Scooper flies at varied speeds during firefighting operations...

 

[FatPhil]

Far more information from the pilots is needed.
Did they hear an impact, or feel it?
Where did the drone impact the aircraft? Did it hit the windshield directly in from of them or at a wingtip?
Or was this a case of "it appeared we would hit it" but they did not actually see it impact some part of the aircraft? If they did see it hit they could have told the FAA where to look on the aircraft for the evidence of impact, so I would guess not. Of course the FAA may not be revealing all details.
Trying to figure out incidents like this from early reports in the media is a guessing game.
I would not be surprised if they saw/hit a drone given the location, some fool looking for exciting video to post on-line.

I'm only familiar with motorsports where they try to punch as small a hole through the air as possible, but large passenger aeroplanes travelling at about the same speed (low 300s km/h) don't have that luxury. The report I read implied that the pilots saw something in front of them, so one possibility could be that it was simply pushed out of the way by the bow wave. However, even if contact was made, I suspect a typical consumer drone, with most outer parts made of plastics, would be unable to put a scratch on a plane even if contact was made. Perhaps it could leave a smear if the polymer's pliable enough?

 

[JMartJr]

However, even if contact was made, I suspect a typical consumer drone, with most outer parts made of plastics, would be unable to put a scratch on a plane

On the other hand...

The battery(s) are a hard little dense packet of mass. A glancing blow might not leave a noticeable mark, but I'd think a direct hit would be a problem.

Pictures of bird strikes on planes show noticeable damage pretty frequently -- some of them specify that the plane was descending to land, some that it was doing something else, some are vague, and few tell you much about the mass of the bird!

 

[FatPhil]

On the other hand...

The battery(s) are a hard little dense packet of mass. A glancing blow might not leave a noticeable mark, but I'd think a direct hit would be a problem.

Pictures of bird strikes on planes show noticeable damage pretty frequently -- some of them specify that the plane was descending to land, some that it was doing something else, some are vague, and few tell you much about the mass of the bird!

The LiPos, and most other things, are behind the aerodynamic elements. Also, I've seen footage of a LiPo destroyed so quickly by an impact that it simply unravelled like a couple of streamers. (By a weapon whose tip speed was probably comparable to the speed of the aircraft - 250mph. This April's NHRL event, IIRC.)

 

[Mendel]

The report I read implied that the pilots saw something in front of them, so one possibility could be that it was simply pushed out of the way by the bow wave. However, even if contact was made, I suspect a typical consumer drone, with most outer parts made of plastics, would be unable to put a scratch on a plane even if contact was made. Perhaps it could leave a smear if the polymer's pliable enough?

At the speed the aircraft was traveling, if the drone was small, they wouldn't have had much of a chance to see it.

 

[JMartJr]

Also, I've seen footage of a LiPo destroyed so quickly by an impact that it simply unravelled like a couple of streamers

Interesting. I've never seen that, my only experience with them is taking one that had swollen up and so was not safe to attempt to use any more, setting it on the driveway and dropping a cinder block on it from the upper deck, on the grounds that if it was going to burst into flames it would be better to do it at the time and place of my choosing.

It was anticlimactic, I managed to mangle it a bit but nothing exciting happened...

Of course, my cinder block was moving slower than a plane!