Add Los Angeles International Airport to the list of airports that have experienced recent drone scares.
According to CBSLA.com, on Sunday, a Southwest Airlines pilot reported a close encounter with an unmanned drone at an altitude of roughly 4,000 feet.
Audio recordings obtained by NBC News via CBSLA.com captured the pilot alerting air traffic control after seeing "one of those radio-controlled helicopter things."
A Southwest Airlines spokesperson said the carrier is investigating what occurred at LAX over the weekend.
The plane never made contact with the drone and landed safely. However, the latest scare has fired up the ongoing debate over unmanned drones and the dangers they present to pilots and passengers aboard commercial aircraft.
"Everybody's worried that it may be something worse next time," said retired United pilot Cpt. Ross Aimer via CBSLA.com. "As these drones start getting bigger and more complicated and more in numbers, we are gonna have huge problems-unless we come up with a real solution."
"Although these engines could take a lot of punishment, as [we've seen] with previous bird ingestions, it could possibly damage an engine or two and cause, perhaps, an accident," he added.
Prior to Sunday's incident, a series of reported drone sightings in airports around New York City helped fuel the debate.
Last month, New York senator Chuck Schumer called for federal action on the drone issue in the wake of incidents involving drones at Westchester County Airport.
"Federal bureaucracy has stood in the way of FAA drone rules to protect New York fliers' safety, and it's time for the OMB to review and approve the new drone regulations that the FAA has sent to their desk so that our airspace stays safe," said Schumer.
"The lack of clear rules about small drones, what is a commercial versus a hobby drone, and how and where they can be used, is creating a serious threat to New Yorkers' safety. We cannot wait for a fatal crash or incident to get this done."
Federal law currently prohibits drones from being operated at an altitude of more than 400 feet and prohibits them from being used within five miles of an airport without permission.
Nonetheless, since 2009, the FAA has deemed two dozen accidents and more than two hundred incidents involving civilian drones "unsafe."
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