A JetBlue pilot said that a drone hit his plane as it approached Kennedy International Airport on Monday morning, less than three days after a United Airlines flight crew encountered a drone on arrival at Newark Liberty International Airport.
The JetBlue flight, a midnight redeye from Las Vegas, was several miles away from landing at Kennedy at about 7:15 a.m., when it struck a drone, the Federal Aviation Administration said. No one was injured, and JetBlue said it found no damage to the plane. The F.A.A. said it would investigate the incident.
The agency said that it receives more than 100 reports of drone sightings near airports every month. Flying drones near planes, helicopters and airports is dangerous and illegal, the agency said.
On its website, the F.A.A. advises drone operators to avoid flying near airports because “it is difficult for manned aircraft to see and avoid a drone while flying.” It adds that drone operators “must avoid manned aircraft and are responsible for any safety hazard their drone creates in an airport environment.”
Drones generally are allowed to fly up to 400 feet high outside restricted airspaces. The JetBlue plane was at about 3,000 feet when it struck the drone, according to its pilot, the F.A.A. said.
JetBlue said that the plane landed without incident and that passengers departed the flight as they normally would. The airline said that it took the plane out of service and inspected it, but found no damage or evidence of a collision.
The F.A.A. had said it would investigate the earlier drone encounter near Newark Liberty. On Friday evening, a United flight crew reported seeing a drone during its descent into that airport, according to agency officials.
The United plane, a Boeing 737 arriving from Key West International Airport in Florida, was approaching Newark Liberty at 5:20 p.m., when its crew reported a drone in the airspace, F.A.A. officials said.
The flight crew landed the plane safely, and all passengers were able to disembark without issue, United Airlines said. The aircraft was carrying more than 100 passengers and five crew members, the airline said.
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