A drone was spotted by four different flights approaching the Newark Airport in New Jersey, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has revealed.
The planes were said to be flying at an altitude of 2,000 to 3,000ft and were around eight to 13 miles away from the airport when the drone was spotted around noon on Sunday.
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The incidents involved ExpressJet 3267, Northwest Airlink 5837, and United Airlines 107 and 1210 flights, but did not lead to any delays or any evasive actions by the aircraft.
The incident occurred around a week after two airplanes came within 100ft of a drone near New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport.
The FAA had placed a ban on flying drones near an aircraft. The offence carries a fine of $25,000 along with criminal charges.
According to FAA rules, a drone can only be flown within five miles of an airport with official clearance.
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By GlobalDataThe agency has also banned the flying of unmanned objects above 400ft due to fear of collision with aircraft.
According to the authority, there has been a sharp increase in similar incidents with around 25 incidents recorded since June when small unmanned flying objects came within a few seconds or a few feet of crashing into larger aircraft.
The FAA had also launched an awareness campaign on no drone zones and the fines and criminal penalties associated with such activities.
Image: An aerial view of New Jersey’s Newark Airport. Photo: courtesy of Fan Railer.
