Gatwick closed by drones

[Glasgowrob]

My money is on someone either with something to gain financially or a grudge against gatwick


In fact any illegal immigrants getting shipped out last night I wonder?

Safee and a lot less risk of getting caught than actually scaling a fence

What's the maximum range on a decent drone could you theoritically fly one using a simple card for example launch a drone from 10 minutes flight time out buzz a taxiing aircraft the carry on to a landing site to either dump or battery change ?

What we talking for a from capable of this £1000?


Even ditching the drones £5/6000 is a very cheap price e to close a major airport for 8/10 hours

[anonymous-user]

Glasgowrob said:

9 hours closure at a busy airport


How much is that Likely to cost Gatwick ?

Are there any airlines predominantly using Gatwick


To enforce that length of closure is definitely edging into the financial gain for someone somewhere territory

Just the last couple of hours of arrivals during a quiet period.

[schmalex]

OtherBusiness said:

schmalex said:

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

I'm surprised they don't just shoot them down, or jam them

Without going into the details, it’s not so easy to simply jam them. Notwithstanding the, not unsubstantial, technical challenges, there are major legal issues to be overcome, such as who is liable if you knock one out of the sky and it lands on a school / motorway / housing estate and kills or injures someone.

I’ve been involved in tests abroad where the customer has wanted to prevent the delivery of dirty payloads via UAS. Again, we could jam them and knock them out of the sky, but that payload then just ends up landing somewhere else, out of control and having a similar impact.

However, not for discussion on an open forum, there are some other capabilities in development that may go some way to providing a better answer to the problem.

Edited by schmalex on Thursday 20th December 07:56

[CthulhuTheGreat]

Gatwick COO saying this is still flying around and is a "large drone"

This looks very much like a planned disruption rather and some moron pillocking around.

Lots of ground activity on FlightRadar24 , looks like they are chasing around the field searching.

https://www.flightradar24.com/51.15,-0.19/14

Edited by CthulhuTheGreat on Thursday 20th December 07:52

Edited by CthulhuTheGreat on Thursday 20th December 07:58

[The jiffle king]

My flight from Spain landed in Paris. Made a swift decision not to wait for the 2 employees who were dishing out hotels to 5 planes and booked a Eurostar which I am on now. Quick taxi from CDG to Gare du nord with some other people , waited in a cafe for it to open at 04:30. Then on the train. Did not trust that flights would get us back to LGW and Eurostar ticket was only £122 per person (just checked and they are now £205)

Great spirit amongst those who made a decision to get ourselves home. Simple things like shared taxi’s sharing phone chargers, letting others use phones to book tickets, and even a loan of €50. Nice to see people working together and getting things done

Felt for those who could not use tech or trusted that the airline would get them back. They might be right but I’m nearly At St Pancras and not far from home

Thanks to Kerry, Simon, Arthur and Mark for collaborating

[Dan_1981]

Glasgowrob said:

My money is on someone either with something to gain financially or a grudge against gatwick


In fact any illegal immigrants getting shipped out last night I wonder?

Safee and a lot less risk of getting caught than actually scaling a fence

What's the maximum range on a decent drone could you theoritically fly one using a simple card for example launch a drone from 10 minutes flight time out buzz a taxiing aircraft the carry on to a landing site to either dump or battery change ?

What we talking for a from capable of this £1000?


Even ditching the drones £5/6000 is a very cheap price e to close a major airport for 8/10 hours

A mavic pro - available for about £600 quid has a 4 mile range.

Easily enough t annoy the airport from a distance.

This does seem rather more planned than some idiot trying to get a cool video.

[Mabbs9]

Heathrow has been affected by drones pretty regularly. We were warned that the three aircraft ahead had passed close to a drone whilst on the ILS (instrument landing system) and still over central London at about 4000'.

It really is getting out of hand. I'm looking forward to the first huge sentence when they finally catch one of these idiots.

[Biker 1]

Surely the operator will need to sleep at some point....
Will delayed passengers get compensation/insurance payout, or is this classed as force majeour?
I hope they catch the fker(s) soon & throw the book at them.

[bitchstewie]

Russians.

[Eric Mc]

This certainly looks like a premeditated "attack" on the airport or at least a serious protest. My hunch is that it has a "political" aspect to it.

[Rick101]

The jiffle king said:

My flight from Spain landed in Paris. Made a swift decision not to wait for the 2 employees who were dishing out hotels to 5 planes and booked a Eurostar which I am on now. Quick taxi from CDG to Gare du nord with some other people , waited in a cafe for it to open at 04:30. Then on the train. Did not trust that flights would get us back to LGW and Eurostar ticket was only £122 per person (just checked and they are now £205)

Great spirit amongst those who made a decision to get ourselves home. Simple things like shared taxi’s sharing phone chargers, letting others use phones to book tickets, and even a loan of €50. Nice to see people working together and getting things done

Felt for those who could not use tech or trusted that the airline would get them back. They might be right but I’m nearly At St Pancras and not far from home

Thanks to Kerry, Simon, Arthur and Mark for collaborating

Love this. Great when folk can work together out of adversity.

Must also say being a Railwayman do like that the train got you where you needed to be.
Rail gets a lot of stick on here but many simply could not manage without it.

[ukaskew]

If this is co-ordinated as it appears regulating them isn't going to achieve much to those who really want to do some damage with them.

Geo-fencing appears to be easily disabled and regulation means the poor chap who has is drone stolen is going to have the met on their doorstep at 3am.

Also, BBC News article saying 2000 flights cancelled, 10,000 passengers affected. That's some pretty quiet flights!

Edited by ukaskew on Thursday 20th December 08:19

[So]

Eric Mc said:

This certainly looks like a premeditated "attack" on the airport or at least a serious protest. My hunch is that it has a "political" aspect to it.

Or perhaps a religious one.

[chrisga]

Why can't they just get a shotgun and disable it? Surely police could authorise a shot to take it out while it is over the airport so it's not going to injure anyone below when it comes down. Or am I under thinking things?

[SydneyBridge]

Sounds like a job for the army to shoot on sight and arrests on terrorism offences.

[Canute]

Gatwick is already over capacity so it will be even more chaotic than normal now.

Also Gatwick having got itself into the position of being over capacity now wants a new runway and more flights, much of which is upsetting people all over the county. So I can imagine that is at least one motive for someone to be using now we know this is a proper attempt at disruption.

[anonymous-user]

Airport still closed for almost 12 hours now.

Loads of departures cancelled in the morning’s busy departure time , yesterday’s arrivals all still in the wrong place.

[So]

chrisga said:

Why can't they just get a shotgun and disable it? Surely police could authorise a shot to take it out while it is over the airport so it's not going to injure anyone below when it comes down.

The drone may be out of range of a shotgun round, which isn't that far. A 12 gauge is effective at about 75m if I recall correctly.

[OtherBusiness]

chrisga said:

Why can't they just get a shotgun and disable it? Surely police could authorise a shot to take it out while it is over the airport so it's not going to injure anyone below when it comes down. Or am I under thinking things?

Exactly, if it flying around over the airport there is enough empty space below for it to crash to earth without any issue! Just time your shot. Perfectly possible to pick your moment a la Captain Philips

[Coolbanana]

LHRFlightman said:

...

Drones need licensing, end of. And if these morons get caught, the entire cost of these delays should fall on them.

Yes, that'll fix it!

Naturally, all those who want to deliberately fly drones over sensitive areas like airports will stop because they have to be licensed; I mean, it's not like they will be unable to buy a drone unregistered and ignore licensing it!

Licensing will only do the obvious: police the law-abiding. It will do nothing to those intent upon using drones illegally. They already flaunt strict restrictions!

Even restricting their purchase in the UK unless licensed at point of purchase, will do zip - you simply bring them in from elsewhere; cheaper too!

The only guaranteed policing method is to shoot them down or track them to 'pilot'. Licensing and Restrictions will do nothing at all.