内容摘要：Betchie Salvador, center, the wife of alleged drug user Marcelo Salvador, his mother and family members grieve during funeral rites at their house in Las Pinas, south of Manila, Philippines, Sept. 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Betchie Salvador, center, the wife of alleged drug user Marcelo Salvador, his mother and family members grieve during funeral rites at their house in Las Pinas, south of Manila, Philippines, Sept. 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

reveals that drones last year accounted for nearly two-thirds of reported near midair collisions involving commercial passenger planes taking off and landing at the country’s top 30 busiest airports. That was the highest percentage of such near misses since 2020, when air traffic dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic.The first reports of near misses involving drones were logged in 2014, the AP found. The number of such encounters spiked the following year. Over the last decade, drones accounted for 51% — 122 of 240 — of reported near misses, according to AP’s analysis.

Passenger jets have long been subject to risks around airports — whether from bird strikes or congested airspace — as was made clear by thebetween 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

that Americans are operating more than a million drones for recreational and commercial purposes.“If you have the money, you can go on the internet and buy a pretty sophisticated drone that can reach altitudes they really have no business being at,” said William Waldock, a professor of safety science at

The risk is most acute near airports because that is where the flight paths of drones and airplanes most overlap, experts said.

The incidents represent only a portion of such close calls because theRapper Kid Cudi, center, arrives at Federal Court for the trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, in New York, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Rapper Kid Cudi, center, arrives at Federal Court for the trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, in New York, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)Elle Fanning poses for photographers at the photo call for the film ‘Sentimental Value’ at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Elle Fanning poses for photographers at the photo call for the film ‘Sentimental Value’ at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)Workers clean a roof at the Tocumen International Airport in Panama City, Thursday, May 22, 2025, as Panama and Venezuela prepare to resume commercial flights nearly a year after suspending them when Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino refused to recognize the re-election of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)