Gatwick closed by drones

[anonymous-user]

Thankyou4calling said:

I repeat. A picture of “The drone” please.

I think most people are ignoring you now.

[Puggit]

Shakermaker said:

That's what the Police themselves are effectively saying by NOT shooting it down. They don't think they can do it and guarantee not to hit something else if they miss.

Sky reporting the police are afraid of ricochets.

[Roy Lime]

schmalex said:

I’m surprised LGW doesn’t have a C-UAS capability.

The third post.

PH aviation thread in tiresome jargon shocker.

[DaveCWK]

On the brightside, i take some relief in that whoever is behind this has chosen to make their point in this fashion, rather than flying a drone directly into a plane engine half way down the runway on takeoff, which if flying FPV really wouldnt be hard to do at all.

[p1stonhead]

DaveCWK said:

On the brightside, i take some relief in that whoever is behind this has chosen to make their point in this fashion, rather than flying a drone directly into a plane engine half way down the runway on takeoff, which if flying FPV really wouldnt be hard to do at all.

Presumably the risk of it actually taking a plane down is low especially trying to aim for an engine.

But the economic damage must be huge.

How much does it cost to run Gatwick for a year? £1m a day say? (Heathrow is apparently a billion quid a year)

Plus associated costs from this.

Could easily be £5m I would suggest. Thats huge.

[Vaud]

Roy Lime said:

The third post.

PH aviation thread in tiresome jargon shocker.

PH is full of acronyms. Google and Wikipedia are handy to pick your CIWS from your C-UAS.

Now I can tell my UAS from my elbow.

[Thankyou4calling]

This is absolute comedy gold.

A major international airport closed by something probably bought in the Maplins closing down sale.

Cops
Airport officials
Fire
Ambulance

There will be a COBRA meeting soon.

No body has the backbone to say enough! All covering their backs.

We see it everywhere and the offenders will be laughing their heads off.

[anonymous-user]

Pretty determined or thick to be doing this still during daylight.

[ukbabz]

I hope when the perpetrators are caught that the courts deal with them harshly. Or at least the airport owners get together and put a proper consequence (suing) plus lifetime bans from all airports in the country.

[Shakermaker]

Thankyou4calling said:

This is absolute comedy gold.

A major international airport closed by something probably bought in the Maplins closing down sale.

Cops
Airport officials
Fire
Ambulance

There will be a COBRA meeting soon.

No body has the backbone to say enough! All covering their backs.

We see it everywhere and the offenders will be laughing their heads off.

What are you waffling on about?

[rxe]

Of course you can hit moving things with a shotgun. But if that moving thing is 100 meters above your head, you don't have the range. Literally, the shot won't reach the target.

You could think of using a rifle. Two problems - it is very hard indeed to hit a moving object with a precisely aimed rifle bullet. So the idea of a "single shot kill" is not going to happen. You'd need lots of bullets, and then you have the problem of where they land - a rifle bullet will travel several miles in ballistic flight, and be capable of doing lots of damage when it lands.

Shooting these things down is the stuff of fantasy.

Of course we could shoot things down in WWII because we didn't really care where the bullets landed. Damaging things/people on the ground was a risk worth taking when there were planes dropping bombs on your head.

[BugLebowski]

I foresee a future where airports will be ringed with automated hunter-killer drones that automatically respond when a drone is detected in the airports airspace, and destroy them in some sort of kamikaze-style attack.

[p1stonhead]

Dont they have to return 'home' to charge and stuff? How can they not be followed? Or are they running out of power and crashing in the airport i.e there is loads of them?

[Camoradi]

Vaud said:

Roy Lime said:

The third post.

PH aviation thread in tiresome jargon shocker.

PH is full of acronyms. Google and Wikipedia are handy to pick your CIWS from your C-UAS.

Now I can tell my UAS from my elbow.

If this drone is still flying by the time it falls dark the police will have to bring in the Central Unit for Night Time Shooting

[Mafffew]

Shakermaker said:

Thankyou4calling said:

This is absolute comedy gold.

A major international airport closed by something probably bought in the Maplins closing down sale.

Cops
Airport officials
Fire
Ambulance

There will be a COBRA meeting soon.

No body has the backbone to say enough! All covering their backs.

We see it everywhere and the offenders will be laughing their heads off.

What are you waffling on about?

Sounds like something you'd find in the Daily Mail or The Sun.

[eharding]

Shakermaker said:

Thankyou4calling said:

This is absolute comedy gold.

A major international airport closed by something probably bought in the Maplins closing down sale.

Cops
Airport officials
Fire
Ambulance

There will be a COBRA meeting soon.

No body has the backbone to say enough! All covering their backs.

We see it everywhere and the offenders will be laughing their heads off.

What are you waffling on about?

He's revving himself up to start ranting about not sending children up chimneys is H&S gone mad, and that rickets and tuberculosis are fundamentally character-forming but the damned nanny state has spoiled it all.

[Harpoon]

p1stonhead said:

Ever been clay pigeon shooting?
Ever been lamping?

You make it sound like no one can shoot moving things, even at night. You are trying to suggest a trained police marksman cant hit a 1ft wide target if someone shines a spotlight on it.

Edited by p1stonhead on Thursday 20th December 11:00

The last time I saw a wild rabbit, it lacked the ability to fly...

[Shakermaker]

Having worked at Gatwick for most of my life, and knowing Chris Woodroofe in a professional sense, this won't be something they want to do. Honestly, the financial impact will be huge, but the cost of doing it wrong will be significantly higher.

Gatwick are exceptionally risk-averse, as an airport should be, and so any risk that would compromise safety will be dealt with in the manner which avoids any more exposure to harmful risk. That's a fact. If they can't safely shoot the drone or stop it, then they won't. They'll take the option to either a) wait for it to stop naturally or b) find the person/s responsible and bring an end to it that way. The cost is racking up, but then equally they could end up with a drone in the engine of an aircraft causing a crash over a highly populated area/The M23/my parent's garden/some fields. All of which would be significantly worse than people's delayed/cancelled flights.

[anonymous-user]

Mafffew said:

Shakermaker said:

Thankyou4calling said:

This is absolute comedy gold.

A major international airport closed by something probably bought in the Maplins closing down sale.

Cops
Airport officials
Fire
Ambulance

There will be a COBRA meeting soon.

No body has the backbone to say enough! All covering their backs.

We see it everywhere and the offenders will be laughing their heads off.

What are you waffling on about?

Sounds like something you'd find in the Daily Mail or The Sun.

Each of his posts are even more stupid than the last. He must run out of stupidity soon.

[Shakermaker]

El stovey said:

Each of his posts are even more stupid than the last. He must run out of stupidity soon.

But will he run out of stupidity before the drone operator?