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A United Airlines pilot arriving in San Diego on Wednesday morning reported encountering a drone thousands of feet in the air as the plane approached the airport, according to airport tower audio.
United flight 1980 departed from San Francisco International Airport at 6:53 a.m. and flew roughly 90 minutes before arriving at San Diego International at 8:28 a.m. After the Boeing 737 landed at the airport in San Diego, the pilot reported to the tower that the plane had possibly hit a drone while flying at about 3,000 feet.
According to recordings of the conversation between the pilot and the tower reviewed by The Times, the pilot tells ground control that it happened on the “base leg” of the flight, generally when the plane flies perpendicular to the runway as it prepares to land.
The air traffic controller asks him for more details: “Do you have like approximate size or how many engines or style or anything like that?”
“It was so small I couldn’t tell,” the pilot responds. “It was red … it was shiny.”
Minutes earlier, the pilot radioed in to staff at Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control, a radar facility that directs aircraft across the region, asking if a drone was near his location. “Not that I’m aware,” the controller responds.
“I believe I just saw like a red small object … about 1,000 feet below us to our right,” the pilot says.
Air traffic control alerted other pilots but did not receive any additional reports of a drone in the area, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane, which was carrying 48 passengers and six crew members, landed safely.
A spokesperson for the FAA said it is investigating.
Pilots are prohibited from operating drones above 400 feet altitude unless they have authorization from the FAA. Drone pilots also must avoid restricted airspace, including the airspace around airports, according to FAA regulations.
It was not immediately clear if the drone actually collided with the aircraft. The airline’s maintenance team “found no damage after thoroughly inspecting the aircraft,” United Airlines said in a statement to The Times.
The plane departed San Diego at 10:16 a.m. and arrived in Houston on Wednesday afternoon, according to FlightAware.
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Terry Castleman is a data reporter on the Fast Break Desk covering breaking news. In 2020, he was named alongside his colleagues as a Pulitzer Prize finalist in explanatory reporting. Previously, he worked at the New York Times and volunteered as a first responder for refugees arriving on the shores of Lesvos.
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Hannah Fry covers breaking news for the Los Angeles Times. In 2020, she was part of the team that was a Pulitzer finalist for its coverage of a boat fire that killed 34 people off the coast of Santa Barbara. Fry came to The Times from the Daily Pilot, where she covered coastal cities, education and crime. An Orange County native, Fry started her career as an intern at the Orange County Register.
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