Gatwick closed by drones
Discussion
hutchst said:
Easily? That's a bold statement. You get one shot at hitting a fast moving target somewhere between V1 & Vr, without knowing precisely where this will happen. Before V1 and it will stop on the runway, once it's airborne your chances of hitting the target are absolutely miniscule.
I thought youd have better chance on one coming into land? If the plan was approaching you at a lowish speed.hutchst said:
roadsmash said:
I guess it’s a matter of perspective, but in my opinion that’s a medium size drone and could easily bring down a plane.
Easily? That's a bold statement. You get one shot at hitting a fast moving target somewhere between V1 & Vr, without knowing precisely where this will happen. Before V1 and it will stop on the runway, once it's airborne your chances of hitting the target are absolutely miniscule.Aircraft at take-off and landing are very predictable.
38911 said:
roadsmash said:
Do all people that work 23 years in aviation talk total nonsense?
Yeah, sorry but you’re talking utter tosh. Is your 23 years experience in Aviation spent as a baggage handler? Or maybe you work in McDonalds in the Departure Lounge? Because it sure as hell ain’t in any relevant profession....
saaby93 said:
They found the Heathrow one
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-46935...
What do we think?https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-46935...
"endangering an aircraft"
£5K or 5 years?
They'll want to make an example of him. AND it was only a few days after Gatwick so he couldn't have pretended not to know the rules
saaby93 said:
They found the Heathrow one
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-46935...
That's not the one the shut down Heathrow for a short while though at about 5pm one evening, as they are claiming this incident took place on Christmas Eve, so not the same incident.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-46935...
I think a key reason a terrorist (or village idiot just out flying their drone in a badly chosen place) is the speed the target plane moves at, when they are landing/taking off I believe they are moving in the region of 150-200mph, and when cruising up to 500mph? A (non-military spec) drone is not something that can lock on to an engine or other specific part of an airliner, so doing it by eye when the target is hundreds or thousands of feet above you and moving at those sorts of speeds and you've got to hit something specific like a wing or engine or windscreen, is a fair challenge.
kev1974 said:
I think a key reason a terrorist (or village idiot just out flying their drone in a badly chosen place) is the speed the target plane moves at, when they are landing/taking off I believe they are moving in the region of 150-200mph, and when cruising up to 500mph?
Approach speeds on most modern airliners will be in the 140-160 knots region during the last mile or so to touchdown, and at 500ft and under, and this is the danger zone where a drone 'popping up' into an engine would be the main reason the laws as they now are, have been created.hutchst said:
roadsmash said:
I guess it’s a matter of perspective, but in my opinion that’s a medium size drone and could easily bring down a plane.
Easily? That's a bold statement. You get one shot at hitting a fast moving target somewhere between V1 & Vr, without knowing precisely where this will happen. Before V1 and it will stop on the runway, once it's airborne your chances of hitting the target are absolutely miniscule.I wasn’t really suggesting it would be “easy” to line a drone up with an aircraft’s engine, I was merely suggesting that once said drone IS lined up with the engine, that one of that size could easily cause issues.
PhillipM said:
That would only be fitted to one of those tiny little 3-axis indoor drones that you can land on your hand, certainly not something you'd attempt to fly outside even in still conditions.
Understood, just pointing out that a battery of this nature would likely get through a jet engine without causing much damage whatsoever.El stovey said:
Terrorists have fired rockets at aircraft a few times in Kenya and more recently Turkey and Egypt.
They’d happily fly a drone into an aircraft if they could. They seem to focus on high profile death and destruction though rather than causing disruption and delays.
In this country, I never worry about aircraft being attacked, I think we have excellent security (drone issues aside), but I worry about trains strangely enough.They’d happily fly a drone into an aircraft if they could. They seem to focus on high profile death and destruction though rather than causing disruption and delays.
I’m on high speed trans to London and back reasonably often, and as I see the GPS on my phone hover at around the 125-130mph mark, very occationally it crosses my mind that I hope no one has loosened a few bolts holding the rails down whilst screaming ‘Alan’s Snack Bar’.
To me, that’s more scary, probably because it would be easily done.
Lord Marylebone said:
In this country, I never worry about aircraft being attacked, I think we have excellent security (drone issues aside), but I worry about trains strangely enough.
I’m on high speed trans to London and back reasonably often, and as I see the GPS on my phone hover at around the 125-130mph mark, very occationally it crosses my mind that I hope no one has loosened a few bolts holding the rails down whilst screaming ‘Alan’s Snack Bar’.
To me, that’s more scary, probably because it would be easily done.
It would take a lot of man power and tooling to start loosening stuff off and moving things in order to derail a train, the signalling system would detect 90% of the things you tried anyway unless you were really clued up. There are far far easier ways of doing things - i.e have a spotter looking for a train to pass a certain point then drive a HGV thru a level crossing. I’m on high speed trans to London and back reasonably often, and as I see the GPS on my phone hover at around the 125-130mph mark, very occationally it crosses my mind that I hope no one has loosened a few bolts holding the rails down whilst screaming ‘Alan’s Snack Bar’.
To me, that’s more scary, probably because it would be easily done.
Whatsmyname said:
It would take a lot of man power and tooling to start loosening stuff off and moving things in order to derail a train, the signalling system would detect 90% of the things you tried anyway unless you were really clued up. There are far far easier ways of doing things - i.e have a spotter looking for a train to pass a certain point then drive a HGV thru a level crossing.
I feel slightly better now 
But I don’t see how someone couldn’t Stihl-saw though the lines 5 mins before the next 125mph train arrived.
Maybe I worry too much!
eltawater said:
Here's the battery from my mavic pro with a deck of cards for comparison.
One of the things they are concerned about is a damaged lithium battery ending up in say the cockpit or worse located in the nose cone or interior of the wing. Damaged lithium battery’s are highly unstable.PhillipM said:
roadsmash said:
There are some drones powered by small batteries such as these:
That would only be fitted to one of those tiny little 3-axis indoor drones that you can land on your hand, certainly not something you'd attempt to fly outside even in still conditions.That US quarter? it's a almost the same size as our current 10p
Whatever drone was fitted to that battery would be lucky to take off outside let alone lunch itself on anything in the air, tbh (and I'm being charitable) it was a pretty pointless/stupid point to make and in no way representative of the kind of drone being spoken of in the thread.
Lord Marylebone said:
I feel slightly better now
But I don’t see how someone couldn’t Stihl-saw though the lines 5 mins before the next 125mph train arrived.
Maybe I worry too much!
You do.But I don’t see how someone couldn’t Stihl-saw though the lines 5 mins before the next 125mph train arrived.
Maybe I worry too much!
The track circuit would more than likely drop out and the corresponding signal revert to danger.
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