Passenger plane 'had near-miss with drone' in central London

A passenger plane flying in London had a "very near miss" with a drone as it approached Heathrow Airport, a report has found.

A UK Airprox Board (UKAB) report into the incident said the A320 aircraft, which was flying at 4,900ft need the Shard skyscraper in central London, "narrowly avoided" a collision with a 50cm drone on July 18.

They said the incident was in the most serious category of risk and the drone operator has not been traced.

The drone was spotted out of the right flight deck window at 12.45pm and had "probably" passed above the right wing of the aircraft and the horizontal stabiliser - found on the tail of the plane.

The UKAB report said: "Members agreed that this incident appeared to be a very near-miss and that the drone operator should not have been flying in that location at that altitude.

It added the account of the incident from crew members "portrayed a situation where a collision had only been narrowly avoided and chance had played a major part".