Question
Is the story a bigger load of crap than the comments being posted (I'm not sure)
No doubt this won't be approved, but look at the statements made before unwrapping the pitchforks and lighting the torches
The statements in the story smell of wee and I'm surprised that Saturdays episode of Causality wasn't mentioned as additional evidence.
Firstly there are idiots with ready to fly machines that's why the DJI Phantom is known as The Phantom Menace within the flying community but anything at 7000 feet wasn't one of them.
A twin bladed drone at 7000 feet, firstly that is called a helicopter or a plane in common parlance so No that's not something some moron bought in Maplin or online.
To me that smells one of the following : Commercial, Military or Police.
Commercial wouldn't risk their ability to make money and most commercial machines wouldn't stand a chance of getting that sort of altitude.
Military is possible, particularly if they probably forgot to set the home point and it was trying to fly back to the US or Israel (ask the Irish army about that one and the second one as well)
The Police are arrogant enough to fly anywhere they want and they have been spending a hell of a lot of money on UAV systems (see I know the lingo) but unlikely
5 years ago a pilot would have said UFO, a strangely common occurrence and probably made slightly less common by pilots being breathalyzed upon landing.
Any remotely operated vehicle is a drone (including your kids toy car) but as usual the Daily Fail would have you believe only drug smugglers, pedophiles, psychopaths and abortionists have such devil machines.but
As an aside one commenter who said model planes and helis require skill and multirotors don't, well tell you what try a 250 racer in acro mode and see what you make of it.
BTW stupidity is common everywhere I have had to call the cops about people flying both fixed wing models and kites less than 200 feet from the end of a UK airport, no doubt the story would have become satanic drone pilots as the other story would only have involved really stupid normal people
BTW a LiPo fire in your pocket, car or ear would be an unpleasant experience, however the energy carried and heat generated is probably a gnats fart compared with the untold millions of Jules and hundreds of degrees C the jet engine is producing.
No it wouldn't be good to bung anything into a jet engine, but a consumer grade machine is a plastic shell, (perhaps some glass bubble impregnated nylon), 4 small PCBs, a credit card sized computer, a few small motors and a soft(ish) battery pack.
Not a good thing to be ingested, but I would be a damn sight more worried about the damage a flock of geese or seagulls would do.