Police are investigating a reported mid-air collision between a drone and a British Airways jet from Geneva that was approaching London's Heathrow Airport. BA said the Airbus A320 was not damaged when the object hit the nose of the plane, which landed safely with no injuries reported to anyone on board. Since April last year there have been 25 near misses between aircraft and drones, figures from the UK Airprox Board suggest. A dozen of these were denoted "Class A" which indicates there was a serious risk of collision. The Heathrow incident comes only weeks after the British Airline Pilots Association called for rules governing the use of drones to be enforced more strictly.

News that a British Airways plane was hit by a drone before landing safely at Heathrow airport has once again highlighted how drones can be a nuisance and, potentially, dangerous. We all know about the military uses of drones (bomb lots of people, surveillance), and how drones can be used for nefarious purposes (theft, voyeurism), but there are actually some pretty cool uses for drones too. Last year the Ocean Alliance partnered with tech heads Yuneec to create "snot bots"; drones with petri dishes attached. For research purposes, the drones are flown over water to catch spray and snot from whales when the animals exhale. There is already a drone journalism lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Missouri also offers a drone journalism course.

Moves to tighten rules on drones have been promised by the government after Labour and pilots unions called for urgent action, including a possible register of drone users and "geo-fencing" of airports, after a British Airways plane was struck on its descent into Heathrow. Sunday's incident is believed to be the first such collision between a passenger plane and a drone, after a series of near misses that led pilots to warn that a strike could be disastrous. The Air Accidents Investigations Branch said it would launch an inquiry. The Department for Transport (DfT) said it would hold a public consultation before a government strategy is published later this year. Labour has accused ministers of dragging their feet after aviation authorities confirmed a number of potentially serious incidents in 2015, including 23 near misses between aircraft and drones in six months investigated by the UK Airprox Board.

Some judges might think you're allowed to shoot down drones that encroach on your turf, but don't tell that to the Federal Aviation Administration. In response to Forbes' questions, the agency says that shooting down a drone is a federal crime. You're still damaging an aircraft, according to the FAA -- it's just that this one doesn't have a pilot onboard. You could face up to 20 years in prison as a result, which is bound to make you think twice about blasting that drone peeping at your backyard.

LONDON – A British Airways plane struck an object believed to be a drone on Sunday as it was coming in for landing at Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, police said. An investigation has been launched into the incident, which follows a string of near misses involving drones and is believed to be the first case of a collision in Britain. The plane, an Airbus A320 with 132 passengers and five crew on board, was on its final descent into Heathrow when it was struck. "A pilot on an inbound flight into Heathrow Airport from Geneva reported to police that he believed a drone had struck the aircraft," a spokeswoman for London's Metropolitan Police said. "The flight landed at Heathrow Terminal Five safely. It transpired that an object, believed to be a drone, had struck the front of the aircraft."

The Metropolitan Police have opened an investigation into reports that a drone struck a commercial passenger plane as it approached London's Heathrow airport. On Sunday, the pilot of a British Airways flight from Geneva, Switzerland, reported that a drone had struck the front of the Airbus A320, which was carrying 132 passengers and five crew members. British Airways inspected the plane but found it was undamaged and deemed safe for its next flight. No one has been arrested following the incident and it is not known who owned the drone or why it was being flown in an area with so many passenger planes. In the U.K., airports and their surrounding areas are controlled airspace where the flying of drones is prohibited.

LONDON – A British Airways flight carrying 132 passengers was hit by a drone as it approached London's Heathrow Airport Sunday afternoon. According to Sky News, the pilot reported that an object had struck the Airbus A320 as it arrived at the London hub from Geneva. The flight, BA727, landed safely at Heathrow's Terminal 5. British Airways said the aircraft was checked by engineers and cleared and cleared to make its next scheduled flight. Sky News reported that London's Metropolitan Police were investigating the incident and no arrests had been made. The strike is the latest in a string of incidents involving drones and aircraft over British airspace.

The initiative should take delivery drones one step closer to legitimacy, but it'll also underscore the limits of current technology. Australia's vast size makes it unlikely that drones will provide anything approaching coast-to-coast coverage. They just don't have the range to deliver to a village hundreds of miles away from the nearest large town, unfortunately. Even if drone service takes off, rural dwellers will likely have to make do with old-school airmail and delivery trucks.

A spokesperson for the airline confirmed that the aircraft "landed safely" and after careful examination was "cleared to operate its next flight." Drones and other aerial vehicles are banned around airports, but there have been a number of near misses in the past year. In September, a drone helicopter and quadcopter narrowly missed planes in separate incidents at Heathrow and there have been similar incidents at City Airport, Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester. Drones now ship with positioning systems that restrict their operation at airports and restricted airspaces but the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) also explicitly states that they should not be flown above 400 feet and pilots should never lose sight of their vehicle. Another rule bans them from flying within 50 metres of another person, vehicle or structure (that includes prisons and football stadia) that are not under the pilot's control.

A British Airways aircraft was possibly hit by a drone Sunday near Heathrow airport as it was coming to land, which is likely to increase demands for greater checks on the flights of the devices. The Airbus A320 flight from Geneva, carrying 132 passengers and five crew members, appears to have not been significantly impacted and was cleared for its next flight, according to news reports. The U.K. Civil Aviation Authority said it was aware of "a possible incident" with a drone at Heathrow on Sunday, which is subject to investigation by the Metropolitan Police. It reminded drone users of the country's "dronecode," which prohibits drones from flying above 400 feet (about 122 meters) and requires them to stay away from aircraft, helicopters, airports and airfields. "It is totally unacceptable to fly drones close to airports and anyone flouting the rules can face severe penalties including imprisonment," the CAA said in a statement Sunday.