Gatwick closed by drones

[Muncher]

A mate is an aeronautical engineer and went to a safety lecture last week.

Interestingly they were saying that in the event of a drone incident it is actually safer to allow aircraft to continue to land than it is to shut the airport for landings.

The chances of a commercial fixed wing aircraft being downed by a drone is actually very low, what is far more dangerous is the increased congestion, increased pilot workload and risk of low fuel incidents from diverting all the aircraft.

The only reason landings are not permitted is the airports don’t want to risk liability on their part and would rather “dissolve responsibility” ie they are happier that there is an increased risk of an incident elsewhere as long as it isn’t their problem in their back yard.

[Trevatanus]

Whatsmyname said:

You'd probably get hit by a train before you cut thru the rail - its not a quick job especially free hand - you can remove quite a bit of rail surprisingly befor the train comes off, the army discovered this when testing explosives on rail lines.

JCB driven into the tracks?

[Ultra Sound Guy]

All high speed railway track is continuously welded, so no bolts to undo!
Cutting a section out with the correct rail saw is scarily quick, but won’t steer the train off the tracks easily.
Fitting one of these however, is fast and effective!

[Whatsmyname]

Ultra Sound Guy said:

All high speed railway track is continuously welded, so no bolts to undo!
Cutting a section out with the correct rail saw is scarily quick, but won’t steer the train off the tracks easily.
Fitting one of these however, is fast and effective!

Are you sure about the continously welded bit, what about IRJS, S&C etc

I doubt you could cut a section rail and remove it before a train come into the section on a high speed line - 2m of rail is approx 100kg

[roadsmash]

techguyone said:

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.

Indeed, look at the battery rating 110 mAh (for comparison my mobile phone has a 4,000 mAh battery.

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.

Outrageously incorrect.

Please see a link to a video below of a nano drone, that holds a similar type of battery, flying perfectly in outdoor conditions.

https://youtu.be/cbQAXDTWgOA

Thanks for your input though!

[jakesmith]

RemyMartin81D said:

You do.

The track circuit would more than likely drop out and the corresponding signal revert to danger.

So soldier a bit of 13a flex to each end before you cut out the middle?

[techguyone]

roadsmash said:

techguyone said:

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.

Indeed, look at the battery rating 110 mAh (for comparison my mobile phone has a 4,000 mAh battery.

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.

Outrageously incorrect.

Please see a link to a video below of a nano drone, that holds a similar type of battery, flying perfectly in outdoor conditions.

https://youtu.be/cbQAXDTWgOA

Thanks for your input though!

You're just being deliberately obtuse, no further response to you from me.

[996owner]

techguyone said:

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.

Indeed, look at the battery rating 110 mAh (for comparison my mobile phone has a 4,000 mAh battery.

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.

Totally agree, small drones (toy ones ) just don't fly well outside unless theres no wind. They also have a very limited range (unlike the one that apparently made an appearance at Gatwick. I certainly wouldn't want to be on a jet when a lithium battery gets sucked into an engine.

I tried flying my sons toy drone outside, so unstable compared to the much heavier DJI Phantom 4 that I own.

[roadsmash]

techguyone said:

You're just being deliberately obtuse, no further response to you from me.

Thank goodness.

[kowalski655]

Whatsmyname said:

You'd probably get hit by a train before you cut thru the rail - its not a quick job especially free hand - you can remove quite a bit of rail surprisingly befor the train comes off, the army discovered this when testing explosives on rail lines.

How about dumping a lot of explosives on the track just before Gordon the Big Engine arrives, and setting it off as it goes over. Would that be enough to derail the train?

[Biker 1]

Looks like an expensive hit for Easyjet: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46957185
I got held up by some 6 hours due to the disruption, but Easyjet staff did a top job marshalling the passengers. I also received food vouchers which subsidised a full English, so can't complain.
Odd, though, that there is still nothing new on this incident & nobody has been apprehended.

[Thankyou4calling]

It’s not odd though.

The cops have already arrested someone for something that didn’t happen so they’ll learn from that.

No ones gonna be charged with flying a drone because nobody was flying a drone.

[Shakermaker]

Thankyou4calling said:

It’s not odd though.

The cops have already arrested someone for something that didn’t happen so they’ll learn from that.

No ones gonna be charged with flying a drone because nobody was flying a drone.

Enough about what it ain't, how about you start telling us what it am?

[Thankyou4calling]

I’ve said what happened on numerous occasions.

[Shakermaker]

Thankyou4calling said:

I’ve said what happened on numerous occasions.

As far as I can see, no you haven't. You've said multiple times that there is no drone, and to look at your earlier posts, which all say the same thing. Apart from your first post on the topic which was this:

Thankyou4calling said:

When the dust settles we will see what a massive over reaction this has been.

It’s the usual British disease, H and S regs, fear of being accused of negligence, compensation culture.

If it happened in many other countries it’d be done with in 30minutes.

which still doesn't say what did happen

[Cold]

Shakermaker said:

which still doesn't say what did happen

I can make a guess.

Unsubstantiated report of a "drone". (see meme for other objects identified as drones)
Airport shuts down.
Police launch their own drone.
Entirely coincidental multiple further reports of drone.
Media frenzy.
Utterly incorrect arrests made.
Media frenzy again.
Military bods with fancy toys stand around looking stern.
Media frenzy.
Nothing found.
Police look daft.
Rinse/adjust/repeat.

[swisstoni]

Cold said:

Shakermaker said:

which still doesn't say what did happen

I can make a guess.

Unsubstantiated report of a "drone". (see meme for other objects identified as drones)
Airport shuts down.
Police launch their own drone.
Entirely coincidental multiple further reports of drone.
Media frenzy.
Utterly incorrect arrests made.
Media frenzy again.
Military bods with fancy toys stand around looking stern.
Media frenzy.
Nothing found.
Police look daft.
Rinse/adjust/repeat.

I think that sums it up. A breakdown of communication meant that the police drones were generating further reports of drones.

So it would help in future if no nice drones are deployed after reports of naughty ones.

[Dr Interceptor]

Having been caught up in it... I'd pretty much concur with the above, but...

Dad buys kid a drone in duty free on their way home
Kids so excited he can't wait he gets home and tests it in long stay car park at Gatwick
Someone spots it and phones it in.
Airport shuts down.
Police launch their own drone.
Entirely coincidental multiple further reports of drone.
Media frenzy.
Utterly incorrect arrests made.
Media frenzy again.
Military bods with fancy toys stand around looking stern.
Media frenzy.
Nothing found.
Police look daft.
Rinse/adjust/repeat

[Biker 1]

Dr Interceptor said:

Having been caught up in it...

What happened? Did your flight get cancelled?

[Dr Interceptor]

Biker 1 said:

What happened? Did your flight get cancelled?

Yup... Twice.

I was booked onto the 06:30 flight with Easyjet to Faro on the 20th Dec - Easyjet cancelled the flight at 3am. At around 3.30am Gatwick actually re-opened the runway, thinking it was all fixed I booked onto the 8am flight to Faro with BA.

We got as far as boarding the BA flight at around 9.30am, only to sit on the plane for 3 hours until they eventually cancelled the flight at around 12.30pm.

We then went back through passport control, and baggage reclaim, then left the airport.

I ended up booking an overnight ferry for that night across to Le Harve from Portsmouth, and drove the Mustang down to Portugal, arriving late lunch on Saturday 22nd.