CNN news 2014-05-14 加文本

cnn news 2014-05-14

CARL AZUZ, cnn ANCHOR: It`s May 12. The school year is winding down. cnn STUDENT NEWS is starting up a new week of coverage. I`m Carl Azuz. Thank you for taking ten minutes for us. Broadly speaking, a drone can be any unmanned aircraft. It could be something the military uses to spy on potential terrorists, could be the R.C. plane your friend flies on the weekends. The Federal Aviation Administration has a new warning about the dangers of drones, particularly in light of something that happened this March.

It apparently involved a remote controlled plane that someone was flying far higher than the legal limit. It almost caused a catastrophe for a passenger flight headed to Tallahassee Florida.

RENE MARSH, cnn CORRESPONDENT: A near nightmare in the sky: a passenger plane nearly crashes into a camouflage drone flying at 2300 feet, well above the typical altitude for a private drone. The incident in the Tallahassee skies involved a U.S. Airways expressed jet flying near the airport.

UNIDENTIFIFED MALE: A remote controlled aircraft 2300.

MARSH: The first details of the March scare previously not revealed until an FAA official spoke about it Thursday in San Francisco.

JIM WILLIAMS, MANAGER, FAA`S UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM: . said that the U.S. (ph) was so close to his jet that he was sure he had collided with it. Thankfully, inspection to the airliner after landing found no damage.

MARSH: Authorities do not know who flew the drone, but say it could have brought down the plane.

The safety of our passengers and crews are our top priority. U.S. Airways parent company tells cnn tonight in a new statement. "We are aware of the publish report alleging an incident was one of our express jets and we are investigating.

There have been close calls before. The FBI is still investigating a drone that came within 200 feet of an Alitalia flight in New York earlier this year.

PILOT: We saw a drone, a drone aircraft.

MARSH: The pilot in that incident can be heard telling air traffic control. And this Monday a small drone was found after apparently hitting this building in St. Louis.

In the next five years, the FAA estimates as many as 7500 drones could be flying in the U.S. airspace at any given time. Now, the agency has been working on a plan to safely integrate drones into the airspace so that you don`t have accidents with passenger aircrafts. Now, it is illegal for commercial use, although there are some exceptions. As for hobbies, the FAA only allows recreational drones to fly up to 400 feet.