A large aircraft could, under certain circumstances, suffer “high severity effects” in a collision with an unmanned aircraft weighing as little as 1.5 kg (3.3 lb), according to testing by the European Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA’s) Drone Collision Task Force.
The task force said that damage would be considered of high severity — typically involving either a “large reduction in functional capabilities or safety margins” or a hull loss — if a collision occurred while the aircraft was in cruise flight above 10,000 ft. At lower altitudes, the severity level would be lower because of lower kinetic energy during impact, the panel said in a report issued in October.1
“Large aeroplanes and large rotorcraft are, by the nature of their scale and design requirements, generally more resilient to collisions with drones and the severity level is limited for the smallest drone categories,” the report said. “For smaller aeroplanes and light rotorcraft, more compon…
