One of these Damn Drones is going to bring down a Major Airline Flight Some Day .. if one hasn't already

US Airways commuter flight nearly collided with a drone in March near the airport in Tallahassee, Fla., according to a Federal Aviation Administration official.

Jim Williams, head of the FAA's unmanned aircraft office, told a conference that the pilot of a regional US Airways flight saw a camouflage-painted drone fly so close to the airliner that "he was sure he had collided with it."

The incident, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, happened March 22 above Tallahassee Regional Airport.

"He reported what appeared to be a small, remotely piloted aircraft at approximately 2,300 feet in the air," Williams said Thursday at the Small Unmanned Systems Business Exposition in San Francisco.

Inspection of the airliner after landing found no damage.

A model of a 1960s-era Phantom jet allegedly belonged to Rezwan 

Ferdaus, who was arrested in 2011 on charges of planning to fly 

explosive-packed, remote controlled airplanes into the Pentagon 

and the Capitol in Washington

"The risk for a small (drone) to be ingested into a passenger airline engine is very real," Williams said. "The results could be catastrophic."

Now this is comforting:

The FAA wasn't able to identify either the drone, which had a piston engine and resembled an F-4 Phantom jet, or its pilot involved in the March incident. The incident involved PSA Airlines Flight 4650, a CRJ-200 aircraft, which operated as a US Airways commuter flight from Charlotte, N.C. (emphasis mine)

Read the full story HERE.

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