Cooler but still well above normal this week

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

It might not have been a drone that struck a British Airways plane on April 17 after all.


British Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin told Parliament on Thursday that it was probably "not a drone incident," 

, an online tech publication.
The plane landed safely at London's Heathrow Airport, but reports that it might have been hit by a drone prompted calls for stronger regulation, as 

.
U.K. aviation officials looking into what happened to the Airbus A320 have now ended their inquiry, 


"They just don't have any evidence to tell them one way or the other," 

BBC's transportation correspondent reports

 — as Transport Minister Robert Goodwill has posited. However, as 

 notes, Goodwill has "dismissed calls for tighter rules on drone use to protect against terror threats insisting current rules governing drone use were strong enough."  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Science

Disasters

Dana Farrington

Author

The incident prompted calls for more drone regulation, but a U.K. lawmaker now says it probably was not a drone that struck the plane. And an investigation has ended because of a lack of evidence.

Not a drone after all? Unclear what hit that British Airways plane

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox