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 The close encounter between the wide-body, four-engine Airbus A380
and the drone occurred at about 1:30 p.m. at an altitude of 5,000
feet (152 meters) as the unmanned aircraft passed about 200 feet (61
meters) over the Lufthansa flight 14 miles (22.5 km) east of the
airport, the FAA said.
No evasive action was taken by the airline crew, and the plane,
Lufthansa Flight 456, safely made its landing minutes later without
further incident, according to FAA spokesman Ian Gregor.
The FAA immediately alerted the Los Angeles Police Department's air
support division.
The number of passengers and crew aboard the plane was not reported
by authorities, nor was the flight's origin.
 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, who has introduced
legislation to require new safety features on drones, pointed to the
close call as an example of the hazards posed to commercial aviation
by unregulated drone activity.
"This is one more incident that could have brought down an airliner,
and it's completely unacceptable," she said in a statement.
Federal regulations generally bar drone aircraft and model airplanes
from flying higher than 400 feet (122 meters) or within 5 miles (8
km) of an airport without first contacting air traffic control and
airport authorities. Operators also must keep their drones away from
other aircraft and groups of people. The FAA has received at least
42 reports of drones flying unsafely near LAX, the nation's
second-busiest airport, since April 2014, according to a Los Angeles
Times analysis last fall of federal data released by Feinstein.
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The data shows nearly 200 pilot reports of close encounters
involving drones in California alone during the past two years, the
most of any state, according to the Times.
In a 2014 letter to the FAA, Feinstein cited three instances in
which drones flew dangerously close to passenger planes near major
airports - two on the same day in May of that year at New York
City's LaGuardia Airport and LAX, and another at John F. Kennedy
International Airport in New York in March 2013.
Responding to heightened concerns about rogue drone flights near
airports, the FAA issued a rule in December requiring hobbyists as
young as 13 to register their unmanned aircraft online with the
government.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Sandra Maler and Michael
Perry)
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