Warsaw, July 21

A Lufthansa plane approaching Warsaw's international airport nearly collided with what appeared to be a drone, the first ever such incident for the German airline, officials said today.

Przemyslaw Przybylski, the spokesman for Warsaw's airport, said the incident occurred on Monday afternoon around 4:00pm when a drone passed within 100 metres of the plane arriving from Munich.

He said the near-collision did not occur at the airport itself, but five kilometres away near Piaseczno, a town south of Warsaw.

Police are investigating the incident to determine who operated the drone, which should not have been where it was.

A spokeswoman for Lufthansa, Bettina Rittberger, was more hesitant about declaring the object a drone. She said "a black object appeared on the right side of the plane" at an altitude of 760 metres and that the crew "supposed that this object could be a drone." She said she couldn't give more details until the investigation produces more results.

"Lufthansa had not encountered a similar situation before," she told The Associated Press.