The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) states it has closed an investigation into a recent near-collision between a Porter plane and what 2 of its team members thought to be a drone.
Pilots on board Porter flight 204, from Ottawa to Toronto, were required to divert the aircraft when they encountered an unidentified object at about 9,000 feet in the air and roughly 55 km from the Billy Bishop Airport on November 14. Two flight attendants who were protecting the cabin for landing at the time of the diversion suffered small injuries.
On Tuesday, the TSB informed it was unable to confirm that the object seen by the Porter crew was a drone.
“We weren’t able to positively identify the things seen by the flight crew,” Chris Krepski, a representative for the TSB stated Tuesday.
“The description and size of the object doesn’t match any known business or customer unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). And the place of the event which was approximately 10 miles from the coast at 8,300 feet is beyond the reach abilities of those kinds of UAVs,” Krepski stated.
At the time of the occurrence, Porter Airlines stated the pilots at first believed the things looked like a balloon but upon additional review thought it to be a drone.
The TSB could resume the investigation must brand-new information emerged, Krepski stated.
