A JetBlue flight on its final approach to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport reported striking a drone in mid-air, prompting an FBI investigation into the latest in a series of drone scares around the city's busy airspace. The pilot relayed the apparent collision directly to air traffic controllers as the aircraft completed its descent.
In the exchange captured on air traffic control audio, the pilot stated plainly that the plane had hit something, telling controllers, "We collided with a drone back there in the turn." Asked to confirm, the pilot said it had struck the aircraft right above the cockpit. Controllers offered assistance, but the crew declined, indicating they were able to continue safely and simply join the line for the runway.
According to the account, the incident happened at around 7:15, with the aircraft, Flight 948 arriving from Las Vegas, roughly 3,000 feet in the air at the time. Despite the alarming report from the flight deck, the situation did not escalate into an emergency, and the crew brought the plane in without further difficulty.
JetBlue told NBC News that the flight landed without incident and that a post-flight inspection of the aircraft found no damage, adding that there was no evidence of a collision. That outcome will offer some reassurance, but it has done little to ease wider concern about the growing number of reported drone encounters close to commercial aircraft near major airports.
The unease was compounded just minutes later, when another JetBlue flight reported seeing a drone flying close by. According to air traffic control audio, the crew of that flight radioed in to say, "JetBlue 2769 just observed a drone pass to our right, slightly below us," as controllers worked to determine whether it was safe to bring the plane down.
The reports are not isolated. Only last Friday, a United flight arriving at nearby Newark also reported a drone sighting, with the crew saying they had almost hit a drone on their approach. Taken together, the incidents point to a pattern of close calls in some of the most heavily trafficked airspace in the United States.
Experts urged a degree of caution in interpreting such reports, noting that many turn out to be false positives, with the object later identified as a bird, a balloon or some other piece of debris rather than a drone. Even so, they stressed that if a drone was genuinely involved, it would represent a very serious safety risk, which is why the FBI has taken up the investigation into the JFK case.