- The Washington Times - Tuesday, March 5, 2013

A commercial airline pilot swears he spotted a drone hovering near his plane during a landing at JFK Airport on Monday.

The Alitalia pilot described the craft as “a black drone” that hovered 200 feet from his jet, The New York Post reports. He also said it was “about a meter square, with helicopter rotors on the corners,” the Post reports. The pilot said he was coming in for a landing from Brooklyn and was about three miles from the airport.

“He was very clear as to what he saw,” one unnamed source in the Post report said.

The incident is under investigation by the Joint Terror Task Force and by the Federal Aviation Administration. Some say the drone could have actually been a model plane. But one investigator debunks that claim.

“In all the years I’ve been with the airport, I can’t remember a similar incident,” one unnamed investigator told the Post. “Whether this is a hobbyist or not, it raises serious concerns.”

• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.

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