A United Boeing 737 with 106 passengers nearly struck a drone while landing at Newark
A United Airlines Boeing 737 came dangerously close to striking a drone Friday afternoon as it made its final approach into Newark Liberty International Airport — an incident that has renewed urgent questions about unauthorized drone activity near one of the country’s busiest aviation hubs.
The pilot of United Flight 1513, carrying 106 passengers and five crew members after departing Key West, Florida, radioed air traffic control to report the near miss. According to ATC audio verified by CNN, the pilot described the device as circular and approximately three feet wide, passing roughly 100 feet below the aircraft. The flight landed safely at around 5:30 p.m., and passengers exited the plane at the gate without incident.
A second drone spotted in the same airspace
The incident was not isolated. Around the same time, the pilot of a United Express flight operated by GoJet Airlines also radioed a drone sighting in the Newark area, reporting the device at approximately 2,000 feet — well above the ceiling where recreational or commercial drones are legally permitted to fly.
Two separate reports within such a narrow window raise serious concerns about the scale of unauthorized drone activity in the skies above one of the New York metropolitan area’s major airports. The back-to-back sightings suggest the Friday afternoon airspace above Newark was more congested with unmanned devices than regulators or controllers had any reason to expect.
What the rules say
Federal Aviation Administration regulations strictly prohibit drone operation in controlled airspace and near manned aircraft without official authorization. Despite those rules, the FAA records approximately 100 drone sightings per month near U.S. airports — a figure that underscores how persistently the problem continues despite existing restrictions.
Newark Liberty International Airport sits within some of the most tightly regulated airspace in the country, given its proximity to New York City and the sheer volume of commercial traffic it handles daily. Operating a drone in that zone without clearance is a federal violation that can carry significant legal penalties for the operator.
The aftermath
United Airlines confirmed the incident in a statement, noting the flight landed safely and customers departed at the gate as normal. No injuries were reported among passengers or crew members.
It remains unclear whether authorities have identified the operator of the drone encountered by Flight 1513. FAA and law enforcement agencies typically investigate such incidents, though drone operators are rarely tracked down in cases like these — a persistent frustration for aviation safety advocates and airline industry officials who have long pushed for tougher enforcement.
With air travel at peak summer levels and drone ownership continuing to expand, Friday’s close call is an uncomfortable reminder of how quickly an unauthorized device can enter restricted airspace and how little margin for error exists when a commercial aircraft is on final approach carrying more than 100 people on board.