A helicopter had to take action to avoid a drone over Aberdeen, an official probe has heard.
The Eurocopter EC135 was coming into land at the city’s airport when the drone was sighted about half-a-mile away.
The incident happened at 3.12pm on September 6 and was reported to the UK Airprox Board, which investigates near misses.
The helicopter pilot told the board that the drone was moving across the aircraft’s flightpath from right-to-left and approximately 300-400ft below.
“The aircraft was manoeuvred to remain well clear and the drone passed down the port side of the aircraft at approximately 0.5 nautical miles. It was metallic and glinting but no other major details could be seen,” said the report.
The Aberdeen air traffic controller also said that the EC135 pilot reported seeing a drone at 2,000ft passing behind them by half-a-mile.
The EC135 was descending through 2300ft at the time.
The drone was described as “larger than a toy but smaller than a large commercial drone. It was metallic in colour and was seen manoeuvring towards the south”.
Subsequent aircraft were informed and the next inbound flight elected to land on another runway.
The board considered that the pilot’s overall account of the incident “portrayed a situation where although safety had been reduced, there had been no risk of collision”.