The president of TAP, Fernando Pinto, will ask for all drones to be grounded if people don’t stop operating them in the flight path of incoming aircraft.
Pinto’s comments come after several drone near misses reported by commercial aircraft pilots, the latest being a TAP Express plane with 74 passengers on board narrowly missing a drone as it approached Lisbon airport on Sunday evening.
The drone came within 50 meters of the right wing of the flight at an altitude of 900 metres, way above the 120 metres allowed by law.
In an interview with TSF radio, the TAP chief said "Due to the irresponsible behaviour of some - and I'm speaking in a European and global context - drones are being used very badly, in a very dangerous way, and that worries us."
By law, drones must stay below 120 metres and may not be operated anywhere an airport.
Pinto said that drones can be a useful work tool and a fun thing to operate but that they should be kept out of commercial airspace before an accident happens.
"But if they continue to penetrate into the airspace, we will argue that drones should not be permitted to fly anymore, and this could start a strong movement around the world,” explained Pinto.
On June 14th, an Aero Vip Dornier was forced to dive out of the way of a drone to avoid collision at 300 metres altitude as it approached at Cascais aerodrome with 14 people on board.
On the same day, a 130-passenger TAP plane narrowly missed a drone flying at 700 metres above sea level as the Airbus 319 from Milan prepared to land at Lisbon airport.
On June 1st, a Boeing 737-800 from the TVF, France Soleil, Air France-KLM group, with about 160 passengers o board, had to perform several manoeuvres to avoid colliding with a drone, 450 metres above the ground, as it was coming in to land at Oporto’s airport.
Over in Spain, the Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries, Food & Environment has presented a strategy for preventing forest-fires, part of which includes the use of four drones for night-time surveillance.
These drones will be based in León, Albacete, Zaragoza and Cáceres, but will be available for use across the country.
If drones are used sensibly, as in the Spanish proposal, and within the eminently sensible laws in Portugal, there should be no pressure to have them banned. If the current spate of near misses continues, it is only a matter of time before a flight is severely damaged or downed by some idiotic thrill-seeker.
"This can not continue," said the Minister for Infrastructure, Pedro Marquês, aware of the six drone near misses this month and ten since the beginning of the year.
The minister said today in Brussels that the government is awaiting replies from the regulator about these drone incidents near aeroplanes and that the Aeronautical Accident Prevention and Investigations Office, was asked to identify whether the recent new regulations are sufficient.
The minister pointed out that this is not purely a problem in Portugal and that a "debate at European level is under way, there are regulations being discussed by the Transport Council on flight and operating rules for unmanned aircraft.”
The minister defended that, despite the speed requested to the regulator in his appreciation of the recent incidents, there is "to legislate well".
Marquês agreed that if there is no ability to enforce that regulation, it will have to be changed.
