We ran a CNN news package yesterday about how much damage a drone can do to an aircraft. In the video they show a CGI animation of a drone striking a 747s wing and causing the wing to burst into flames and fall off....which I call out bull crap almost immediately along with the rest of the news staff. It was laughable the damage they we saying a drone can do.
The news station I work for has 3 DJ Phantom II drones we use for all sorts of operations, from commercial shoots to news stories. One of the drones was badly damaged after our pilot accidentally hit a tree limb while flying at home doing some practice flying. It was able to be repaired but there is no way a drone like a DJ Phantom II is going to cause an airplane much trouble unless it hits an engine or maybe the windshield.
We're trying get our guys cleared and certified so we don't have to ground our fleet as the drone can be incredible when it comes to getting news.
Not all drones are plastic, there are some drones with gasoline engines, that adds a little more weight which means more damage, I agree with you that the cgi was over done, but a windshield strike with 55lbs of weight will go through the windshield and if striking a crew member in the head, my guess would be it would take the persons head off. I flew for Eastern for many years and the only thing that ever happened for all my years of flying was that on a trip from KMOC to KEWR, after climbing to flight level 330, I noticed a slight blur, really a speck right in the middle of my windshield, I pointed it out to the captain and we tried to determine if it was on the inner or outer pane by touching the surface and judging the distance between my finger tip and this speck. At this point that speck actually became a crack and it was the loudest pop I have ever heard in my entire life. We followed the check list , got on O2, asked for something below flight level 260 and recalculated fuel and turned off windshield heat, heating of the windshield makes the windshield more pliable and able to withstand an impact from a 'bird-strike', the emergency checklist calls for heat off. Next stop Atlanta. All the way there the windshield continued to make noise and pop. I lowered my seat so my head was well below the glare shield. It held all the way , we never lost pressure. Gave my captain time to recall his B17 days over Germany and his bachelor nights in England.
