Drone rips huge hole in plane’s nose after it strikes it while landing

A drone has ripped a series of holes in the nose of a packed passenger plane as it came in to land.

Crew on board the Boeing 737 headed for Tete, the capital of Mozambique, reported hearing a ‘bang’ when it collided with the drone, reports the Aviation Herald.

Pictures of the Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM) flight, which was struck as it came into land at 5pm on Thursday, later showed a series of dents in the plane’s fuselage.

Fortunately, none of the 86 people on board were injured, although reports state that some passengers have said they are now too scared to fly.

A spokesman for LAM confirmed in a statement on Facebook that the plane ‘suffered damage on the right side of the front of the fuselage’.

‘The crew heard a crash, which alerted the possibility that the aircraft had contact with an external body,’ the statement said..

A spokesman for the Drone Manufacturers Alliance told USA Today that past reports of collisions with passenger planes have ‘turned out to be false’.

They added: ‘Nevertheless, we take these reports seriously, and our member companies stand ready to offer assistance to Mozambique’s aviation authorities as they investigate this incident.