Inside a week there've been two reports of possible collisions with drones by airlines operating out of Houston (at around 8000') and into San Diego (at around 3000'). In the first inst the aircraft returned to base... inconvenient for the airline and PAX.
What we used to hit on a fairly regular basis was birds, an incident called 'birdstrike' although no equivalent name as been devised for the newer form of collision, Russia having trademarked 'dronestrike' for what it is doing with Ukraine.
Once saw one whilst departing Manchester, badgering ATC to drop the speed and grant an early turn. Spotted something below us out of the lefthand window as we climbed through 8500' and close enough for its colour ~ red and black ~ to be seen.
With a drone of the same colour also reported by a Virgin flight around the time, it would appear the plane-spotting had been elevated to new levels by someone who may or may not have been after that best possible shot on video.
Nothing much further heard, possibly because the same sort of geek would be able to listen in to ATC, but expect many more such events as drones begin to fill every corner of the sky.
And see how the roads in Houston both radiate and form a natural grid? We've none of that in the UK and I blame the Romans.
