Lufthansa Plane, Drone Nearly Collide; 39-Year-Old Man Questioned

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A Lufthansa plane lands at San Francisco International Airport on June 10, 2015 in San Francisco, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, file)

By    |   Wednesday, 22 July 2015 01:14 PM EDT ET

A Lufthansa plane nearly collided with an apparent drone in Poland on Monday, a first time occurrence for the company, officials said.

"A black object appeared on the right side of the plane" at an altitude of 2,500 feet around 4 p.m., Lufthansa spokeswoman Bettina Rittberger told The Associated Press.

"Lufthansa had not encountered a similar situation before," she said, adding that the flight crew "supposed that this object could be a drone."

A representative for the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency, Mikolaj Karpinski, said that the pilots of the inbound flight from Munich reported the object to air traffic controllers as soon as they spotted it. The controllers soon redirected the plane's path, as well as the paths of 20 other arriving planes.

Helicopters and an air force plane were deployed to seek out the flying object, but ultimately could not find it.

On Wednesday, however, police questioned a 39-year-old man and confiscated his drone. Police said the drone was flown on Monday, but declined to say if it matched the object that nearly collided with the Lufthansa flight.

Analysis showed that the object came within 300 feet of the plane above Piaseczno, a town south of Warsaw, as it descended toward Warsaw's airport.

The Lufthansa flight landed just a few minutes after the near-miss with the presumed drone.

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TheWire
A Lufthansa plane nearly collided with an apparent drone in Poland on Monday, a first time occurrence for the company, officials said.
lufthansa, plane, drone, nearly, collide, poland
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2015-14-22
Wednesday, 22 July 2015 01:14 PM
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