Man you just have to love these stories - a drone at 9000ft ! A drone that was 2-3 meters in size ! A drone that blocked the view of an A320 !
Yet its us guys that get the flack for this - clearly not a normal run of the mill type of drone that can be over a mile up in the sky or that size.
āā¦at the very least.ā
Hope they drug wiped the pilots
Surely a drone that big would show up on radar, so could be tracked ?
Iām disappointed it wasnāt spotted by the same guy in the back of a Chinook who seems to spot other drones at stupid heights. 
One A320 incident reported in the May 2025 edition of AIRPROX review
Airprox 2025053
7 Apr 25
1040
A320
(CAT)
Drone
5137N 00020W
2NM S Elstree
FL70
London TMA
(A)
The A320 pilot reports that they were on intermediate approach into LHR and under a Radar Control Service by LHR Director. Three pilots were on the flight deck as it was a training flight for a new First Officer, the third pilot acting as a safety pilot.
[The pilot of the A320] was the operating Captain and the first to observe the drone. They announced the sighting to the other pilots and called its position. It was just right of the nose initially, passing to the left. On initial contact, it was approximately 50-70m ahead. The drone was observed by the other pilots. [It was a] four motor drone with blades in each corner, dark, possibly black in colour, similar to those seen in drone swarms.
No avoiding action was taken as the drone had already passed below and to the left of the aircraft. The sighting was reported to ATC who passed it to following traffic. After landing, they were contacted by [company] security and advised that the Met Police Aviation Policing division would be in touch. A report was subsequently filed with the Met Police.
Reported Separation: 50ft V/15m H
Reported Risk of Collision: High
Heathrow INT North controller reports that the landing runway was RW09L. [The pilot of the A320] was on a heading downwind from LAM at FL70 when they reported a drone off the left wing, about 50ft below. The colour was reported as black/gold. The location was about 3 miles south of Elstree. This information was reported to the Supervisor and subsequent traffic was informed.
NATS Safety Investigations
Analysis of the radar by NATS Safety Investigations indicated that there were no associated primary or secondary contacts visible on radar at the approximate time of the event.
In the Boardās opinion the reported altitude and/or description of the object were sufficient to indicate that it could have been a drone.
Applicable Contributory Factors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7
Risk: The Board considered that providence had played a major part in the incident and/or a definite risk of collision had existed
so where does the media got its ā¦ (insert a tyrant of expletives there ) from when the airproxy has such a different story about it - no mention of size of drone and mmm FL70 is that 9000ft ??
Man there needs to be a governing body that you can report fake / false reporting - both the Metro and the Sun ( ok Metro is quoting the Sun) state the report ( I guess this is the AirProxy report ) has xyz size / hight etc in - but so far off the mark - aaagh angers me this.
Not sure yet that the report above is the incident concerned, Iām slowly working through an slew of Airprox reports (but keep getting diverted by other interesting near misses!)
the date and aircraft match but thatās it really - unless this happens like for every A320 landing 
My apologies, the Airprox was in May, it is discussed in the July Airprox review
This is the correct article
2025107 19 May 25 1809
A320 (CAT) Unk Obj
N5132 00004W E Central London FL90 London TMA
(A)
The A320 pilot reports that the flight departed from LHR RW09R, on the BPK6J SID initially and then an eastbound heading over London. Whilst over central London at FL90 in clear skies at a speed of 250kt IAS, both the Captain and First Officer saw a bright white object pass overhead from the opposite direction. The object appeared to be approximately 2-3m in size at the very least, it may have been larger as it filled a good proportion of the windshield. There was no appreciable separation vertical or horizontal. The First Officer observed that it was triangular in shape. The Captain only saw the object for a second or two in peripheral vision so could not reliably comment on the shape. No markings were identified. The object did not appear on TCAS. The encounter was immediately reported to London control
Reported Separation: 10m V (above)
Reported Risk of Collision: NR
The Swanwick TC Radar controller (NE departures) reports that at 1810 [the A320 pilot] reported a drone sighting at FL90, 10NM west of [London City Airport], it was grey. This information was passed on to Heathrow Approach also.
The NATS Safety Investigation reports that the pilot of [the A320] reported that an object passed within about 10m of the aircraft as they were passing 9000ft, approximately 5NM west-northwest of London City Airport. Safety Investigations was subsequently informed by the UK Airprox Board that the event had been submitted as a drone Airprox.
The pilot stated that the object āwent over us, probably within about 10 metresā. The NE DEPS controller informed the Heathrow Intermediate Director, the Heathrow Tower Supervisor was also informed.
Analysis of the radar by Safety Investigations indicated that there were no associated primary or secondary contacts, associated with the drone report, visible on radar at the approximate time of the event.
They concluded that the pilot of [the A320] submitted an Airprox report in response to the sighting of a drone whilst approximately 5NM west-northwest of London City airport.
It has been estimated that the UAS was at 9000ft.
Safety Investigations reviewed the radar at the time the pilot of [the A320] reported the sighting, however, no radar contacts associated with the drone were visible.
UKAB Secretariat reports that an analysis of the NATS radar replay was undertaken and a single primary return was seen at 0.2NM ahead of the A320 to the east of Central London at 1808:50 when the A320 had been at 9200ft. There were no further similar returns detected on radar.
In the Boardās opinion the reported altitude and/or description of the object were such that they were unable to determine the nature of the unknown object.
Applicable Contributory Factors: 4, 6
Risk: The Board considered that providence had played a major part in the incident and/or a definite risk of collision had existed.
both the Captain and First Officer saw a bright white object pass overhead from the opposite direction. The object appeared to be approximately 2-3m in size at the very least, it may have been larger as it filled a good proportion of the windshield. There was no appreciable separation vertical or horizontal. The First Officer observed that it was triangular in shape.
How high do migratory swans fly?
Google suggests 2000 - 8000ft so mmm maybe
Is it now time for planes to have like dash cams fitted
Up to 29,000 feet .
Youād have thought they would have with all these ā suspected sightings ā !
Could quite easily have been a wing from one of the half a dozen or so flying clubs near Heathrow,
ātriangular shapedā sounds like a wing!
Sounds like a slow news day at the metro, they are getting as bad as the daily mail for making stories up
its worse than that - they took the story from the Sun - so they cant even be bothered to actually do their own story
haaha and was in all view of and they couldnt seeā¦ erm if your at a speed that drone wouldnt be in view etc ā¦
LOB
Spotted Just to the right, approx 50-70mtr ahead, passed beneath and to the left of the aircraft?
How long does the aircraft take to fly 70mtr? It may have been a new supersonic drone! 
My neighbour knows I have a Mini 4. He went to Chester racecourse, where Airbus were doing a fly past with a WW2 bomberā¦
After, he told me in all seriousness that people became aware that someone was flying a drone 6,000ft above the racecourse! I told him that due to low battery capacity, or reduced lift would make it impossible.
But the first thing people thought was that it was a mad drone operator watching from above. What happened to shiny UFOās? They must be hovering about getting upset at the lack of attention now!
One possibility is that it may have been a military drone covering security.
