So far it’s unconfirmed, but the FAA is taking seriously a report that a Piper twin was involved in a midair collision with a UAV over northern Illinois on August 27.
Maybe we should be calling it a UFO, since the FAA’s incident report refers to a collision between the Piper Apache and an “unidentified object” over Romeoville, Illinois, under Chicago’s Class B airspace about 20 nm southwest of O’Hare International.
Photos of the damaged airplane posted online by sUASNews.com show a dented wing leading edge and a six inch slice in the de-ice boot that looks like it was caused by something manmade and not of avian origin.
No injuries were reported by the single pilot aboard the airplane, but the damage no doubt will be expensive to repair. The Piper is owned by an Illinois aerial imaging company, according to FAA records.
If it was somebody’s UAV, it would be the second such reported incident in the United States since the FAA started reporting a sharp rise in drone encounters by pilots this year. In April, the pilot of a small airplane flying near Livermore Airport in Califonia reported a possible UAV collision with damage to the lower portion of his nose cowl.
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