News Gatwick Shutdown - Drone Attack

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shyvas

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A drone attack at one of the UK's busiest airports has left tens of thousands of passengers facing major disruption.
Gatwick's runway has been shut since Wednesday night, when two devices were seen flying over the perimeter fence.
The airport said 110,000 passengers on 760 flights were due to fly on Thursday.
Sussex Police say this is a deliberate act and they are actively searching the whereabouts of the culprits.

 
I'm glad we're not going anywhere this holiday ...

It seems both civil society and the military struggle to deal with drones. There was a NATO military drill in Norway I think earlier this year which was also visited by rogue drones, but they didn't appear to have a way of dealing with them.

I just seems like there should be a way to down such drones, and it's unbelievable that airport security around the world apparently haven't anticipated that this would eventually happen, and therefore made preparations.

Maybe they could use another drone and engage in a 'dog fight'? Or a swarm of drones with a net to capture it? I think I also read somewhere that someone was using trained, domesticated birds of prey to capture rogue drones?
 
Indian Summer said:
I'm glad we're not going anywhere this holiday ...

It seems both civil society and the military struggle to deal with drones. There was a NATO military drill in Norway I think earlier this year which was also visited by rogue drones, but they didn't appear to have a way of dealing with them.

I just seems like there should be a way to down such drones, and it's unbelievable that airport security around the world apparently haven't anticipated that this would eventually happen, and therefore made preparations.

Maybe they could use another drone and engage in a 'dog fight'? Or a swarm of drones with a net to capture it? I think I also read somewhere that someone was using trained, domesticated birds of prey to capture rogue drones?
Click to expand...

I agree. Gatwick is still shutdown and the authorities have now called the army in. All flights are still grounded with thousands of passengers who are stranded.
Our local airport has cancelled all of the flights to Gatwick. Some airline are flying passengers to other UK airports such as Luton, Manchester, Leeds which must be inconvenient for most people.

Police call in the Army to help deal with Gatwick chaos as drones cause runway to close - live updates
 
I hope they get to the bottom of it. What a completely disruptive act.
 
PTree15 said:
I hope they get to the bottom of it. What a completely disruptive act.
Click to expand...

After having reopened yesterday morning, Gatwick suspended all flights early evening due to the spotting of a drone.
Sussex police took two suspects into custody after raids at 10pm last night "in the Gatwick area".

The airport now has to deal with the huge backlog of passengers who are still stranded.

''Police Superintendent James Collis said: “Our investigations are still on-going, and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience
to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones, by deploying a range of tactics.
“We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant and support us by contacting us immediately
if they believe they have any information that can help us in bringing those responsible to justice."

Two arrested for 'criminal use of drones' after Gatwick airport chaos
 
So the two suspects had to be released as they appeared to not be related to the incident.

Then I saw a headline saying the police had suggested the sightings may not have been drones at all. People got very angry, so the police had to retract that idea.

Now they're trying something new: that the observations may have seen police drones!

I'm not sure what to say ...!
 
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Indian Summer said:
So the two audits has to be released as they appeared to not be related to the incident.

Then I saw a headline saying the police had suggested the sightings may not have been drones at all. People got very angry, so the police had to retract that idea.

Now they're trying something new: that the observations may have seen police drones!

I'm not sure what to say ...!
Click to expand...

Drones have been along for some time. It's not normal that UK airports have not used technology to
assure that they are not a threat to any airport in the country. Apparently Heathrow has a different counter drone technology opposed to Gatwick.
The Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Defense should be answering all the relevant questions to why UK's 2 nd airport was shut down for nearly 4 days.



"A suggestion by a senior Sussex police officer that there may have been no drones was later dismissed as a "miscommunication".
Mr York said police received 115 reports of sightings, including 93 confirmed as coming from "credible people", which he later said included a pilot, airport staff and police officers.
He admitted police drones launched to investigate could have caused "some level of confusion".
However, the Sussex force later denied the use of police drones had caused any disruption."

 
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"Gatwick and Heathrow are to spend millions ( several) of pounds on anti-drone technology
following the disruption at the Sussex airport before Christmas.
The equipment, which can detect and jam communications between a drone and its
operator, was deployed by the RAF on a roof at Gatwick last month."

Apparently the airports are purchasing the equipment from an Israeli firm. I was under
the impression that major airports were already using this kind of equipment.

Anti-drone equipment for airports
 
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