I find it outrageous that the two aircraft managed to meet in mid-air. One is already pretty small, and the other is tiny, compared to the shear amount of volume that makes up airspace above the ground. That is three dimensions. What are the odds? Were they on perpendicular or parallel trajectories?
Drone operator should be at fault, because any surveillance drone ought to easily out-maneuver any type of airplane. But, that could be analogous to suggesting, in a tractor-trailer vs. motorcyclist scenario, motorcyclist should be at fault, because the motorcyclist 'could have out-maneuvered the tractor-trailer, but failed to do so.' Hmm.
Good intentions don't work, mechanisms do.
Perhaps some future aviation laws would require any drones to have 'automatic-aircraft-avoidance', where it just drops to the ground if it detects (using LiDAR or some other active system that requires no communication from) intercepting [high-speed] aircraft. You'd have to detect out, maybe 700 feet? Modern automobile LiDAR systems can reach over 1200 feet. 500 miles-per-hour is 733 feet-per-second -- how fast can a drone drop 100 feet (height of an A380, plus 20 feet).
Quick Googling shows that jet airplanes land at about 165 miles-per-hour -- 242 feet-per-second. If the LiDAR on a toy/police drone can see out even 1000 feet, that's still 4 seconds to 'drop' the drone to some much lower altitude when it detects intercepting aircraft. Slap a warning on the drone that says 'WARNING: MAY DROP TO GROUND IF AIRCRAFT DETECTED, STANDING DIRECTLY UNDER A DRONE MAY LEAD TO SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH', combined with all the lectures you got during your government-provisioned operator licensing program...
We might need permitting/licensing for drones, just like automobiles. During the licensing class/exam, should include some acknowledgement of these standard 'auto-drop' features, and the important safety lesson, never to stand directly below a drone, or fly drones above life or property, in the event it has to drop to ~10 feet of altitude to avoid aircraft collisions, which might result in striking buildings, vehicles, trees, etc. Show a video of an expensive drone crashing into a residential roof to get the picture across. All drones have some sort of DIN (like a VIN), because they all need to have the standard safety features (just like automobiles), so now they're able to be registered in each state (just like automobiles). Defeating standard safety features is a crime (just like uninstalling seatbelts in an automobile).
Then, drone manufacturers are mostly off the hook for injury/damage lawsuits, because every licensed drone operator now 'knows better' than to operate drones in a way which might endanger life or property. Arguing against this, is like saying auto manufacturers are liable for pedestrians being struck by licensed motorists (minus obscure scenarios like the Mazda Miata) -- the act of getting a [drone/automobile] license certifies you by your government, that you are probably safe enough to operate the machinery. Maybe this just ends up being a 'drone endorsement' on your drivers license.
By this point, you probably need to be insured on each drone you operate, too..."bundle and save!"
Then, when some people are lucky enough to be in a scenario where their drone 'auto dropped' onto somebody's house, they just pay their insurance deductible to 1) get a new drone and 2) not get their pants sued off by the property owner.
Furthermore, if an auto-dropped drone strikes a pedestrian, it's handled in the same way as car-vs.-pedestrian, where the operator is probably found to be at fault (due to negligence/recklessness), minus extenuating circumstances (I can't even imagine -- scenarios where the giant A380 was flying 100 feet off the ground because it was hijacked?)
I firmly believe owning/operating aerial drones will mirror owning/operating automobiles, it's just a matter of time. When cars were first invented, there were very few laws dictating anything about them, until they became popular enough to start damaging life and property. We're now on that cusp with drones, incidents like this might prove fatal one day.
Let's organize this thing and take all the fun out of it.
