Drones - An accident is waiting to happen soon - Curt Lewis

Drone came within 5 metres of passenger jet at Liverpool airport
Incident was one of four near misses in a month, with pilots and airports calling for tighter regulation.

Drone technology has advanced rapidly in the past few years, particularly in terms of range and battery life. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

A passenger jet taking off at Liverpool airport narrowly avoided a collision with a drone that came within 5 metres (16ft) of the aircraft's wingtip, an investigation has found.

The pilot spotted the large, black and yellow drone immediately after the Airbus A319 took off, but it was so close there was nothing he could do to avoid it, he told a UK Airprox Board review, which found that "chance had played a major part" in avoiding a collision.

The drone pilot could not be found. But members of the board who wrote a report on the incident said it should have been obvious that the unmanned vehicle was endangering the passenger jet, "even if the operator was not 'aviation-minded'".

It was one of four near misses in a month between drones and commercial passenger airlines recorded by the UK Airprox Board. Aircraft coming in to land at Heathrow reported three drone near misses in three days, including one where the pilot could identify the brand of drone that came within 100 metres of his aircraft "because his son had the very same model".

In another incident close to the Shard in London, a drone flying at 1,500 metres came within 20 metres of an Airbus A320 on its descent into Heathrow. The pilot had no time to take any steps to avoid a collision and only luck prevented a crash, the board found. Under civil aviation rules, unmanned aircraft must be within the eyesight of the operator, which is usually held to mean an altitude of 400ft.

In all the near misses, police were alerted, but the drone operator could not be traced. Several pilots complained that they had spotted the drones when they were busy preparing to land.

There has been a steep rise this year in reports of drones flying near passenger jets. The UK Airprox Board received reports of 56 such incidents up to October, compared with 29 in all of 2015 and six the year before.

In April, a pilot claimed his British Airways Airbus A320 had been hit by a drone as it came in to land at Heathrow, although the then transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin later told MPs the incident was unlikely to have been a collision with a drone.

Drone technology has advanced rapidly in recent years, and improved battery life and range mean models that claim they can be controlled from up to 3 miles (5km) away are available for less than £1,200.

Heathrow and the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) have called for stronger regulation against civilian drones. Last month, a Heathrow spokesman said: "Anyone operating an unmanned aerial vehicle has an obligation to know the rules and ensure they are capable of operating it safely. Doing so in proximity to an airfield or aircraft is illegal and clearly irresponsible.

"Stronger regulation and enforcement action must be a priority for the government to ensure that the airspace around British airports remains among the safest in the world."

Steve Landells, a flight safety specialist at Balpa, warned last month of the "potential for catastrophe" posed by increasingly powerful drones being flown near airports.

"Pilots are pressing for better education and compulsory registration, during which the rules are made quite clear, and more high-profile prosecutions of offenders," he said.

"We would like to see drones fitted with technology that would stop them being flown in the wrong places, automatically make them move out of the way if they get too close to other aircraft and, as a last resort, alert air traffic control and pilots of their presence so avoiding action can be taken to prevent a collision."