Audio recordings show the intense moment a United Airlines flight hit a drone 3,000 ft in the air above San Diego
12:04 ET, 29 Apr 2026Updated 12:53 ET, 29 Apr 2026
The pilot of the United Airlines flight told the dispatcher they hit a “red” and “shiny” drone while 3,000 ft in the air
A United Airlines Boeing 737 hit a drone over San Diego this morning, at around 3000 feet.
According to reports, it was UAL flight 1980 traveling from San Francisco to San Diego.
Audio of the incident was captured by the ATC App. “Ground 1980, you know off of runway 27 at Broadway Robin?” asks the dispatcher. “We hit a drone. At around probably at around 3000 ft, about.”
“Do you have like an approximate size or how many engines or style or anything like that?” the dispatcher asks. “It was so small,” answers the United Airlines pilot. “I couldn’t tell. It was red. It was shiny.” It comes after another pilot uttered four chilling words before a plane crash that killed 146 on board.
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No damage to the plane or injuries from the incident have been reported.
Actual collisions between commercial planes and drones are exceedingly rare, with 7 confirmed cases of direct in-flight contact worldwide as of early 2018, but reported close encounters (“near misses”) are rising rapidly, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.
The drone strike has sparked some alarming fears and conspiracy theories due to its remarkable height.
The Mirror has reached out to United Airlines for comment.
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“A red drone at 3000 feet? Doesn’t seem like normal consumer hardware,” wrote one fearful X user. “Lol that’s pretty high for a toy,” added another, while a third tweeted: “What is a drone doing at 3000 feet in US airspace?”
Others said it was worrying to here of a drone-related incident.
In 2025, an Associated Press analysis of an aviation safety database revealed that drones throughout 2024 accounted for nearly two-thirds of reported near-midair collisions involving commercial passenger planes taking off and landing at the country’s 30 busiest airports. That was the highest percentage of such near misses since 2020, when air traffic dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A United Airlines Boeing 737 hit a drone over San Diego this morning, at around 3000 feet(Image: Getty Images)
Passenger jets have long been subject to risks around airports — whether from bird strikes or congested airspace — as was made clear by the 2025 collision between a military helicopter and commercial jet near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people.
The threat from drones has become more acute in the last decade as the use of quadcopters and remote-controlled planes has exploded in popularity. The FAA estimates that Americans are operating more than a million drones for recreational and commercial purposes.
The risk is most acute near airports because that is where the flight paths of drones and airplanes most overlap, experts said.
It comes after a ‘time traveler’ pilot jumped years ahead and ‘saw major change’ which then came true
If you have any information on this story or you were on this flight, please contact [email protected].
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