Drones Are the New Threat to Airline Safety

Pilot sightings are surging, but it’s unclear whether a calamity is imminent.
Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
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You’re landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on the “expressway” approach—it’s called that because you come in low enough to buzz the Grand Central Parkway and Mets’ Citi Field before dropping down quickly on a runway that perches over the middle of a bay.

As it is, it’s one of the more jarring landings in the U.S. What, then, would happen if a drone suddenly appeared in the flight path?