Gatwick closed by drones

[PRTVR]

Why not a high powered transmitter giving a multi channel decent signal, would that over ride the controls if they were on a preprogrammed route ?

[Glasgowrob]

well the tools exist so why not get a chopper and a netgun up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGp2okWpyJg

[chrisga]

So said:

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.

Guess so, I assumed it was fairly close though as heard an airport official on the radio this morning saying they could see it out of the window.

[S100HP]

Well this is fun!

Tons of people supposed to be flying out of Gatwick this morning...

[CthulhuTheGreat]

If they are flying these in autonomous mode then the drone doesn't need a link to the remote controller once it's off on its pre-planned route. The drone is relying on a number of built in systems such as GPS receiver, visual measurement of height and so on and it will just continue on its route.

Blocking GPS will in most cases cause it some issues and depending on the on-board software may cause it to land, but I guess blocking GPS around an airport may not be that easy.

Just firing high powered radio at it may not have any affect on it.

Give the ground crews these:

https://www.sportsmanguncentre.co.uk/barnett-black...

Edited by CthulhuTheGreat on Thursday 20th December 08:44

[CAPP0]

Glasgowrob said:

well the tools exist so why not get a chopper and a netgun up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGp2okWpyJg

Hypothesising here, but if a decent-sized heli were to fly above it, would the downdraft not just blow it onto the ground?

Some risk to the heli but manageable?

[So]

Coolbanana said:

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.

Quite. It won't stop the government doing it, though. It will be cheap (for them) and they can be seen to be doing something,

I'd be astounded if we don't already have the technology to trace a drone pilot, though. The military have been using drones for donkeys' years.

[PRTVR]

CAPP0 said:

Glasgowrob said:

well the tools exist so why not get a chopper and a netgun up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGp2okWpyJg

Hypothesising here, but if a decent-sized heli were to fly above it, would the downdraft not just blow it onto the ground?

Some risk to the heli but manageable?

To reduce the risk a helicopter fitted with a sand filter as used in the Gulf war would prevent one getting into the engine.

[S100HP]

Can they not just shoot the bloody thing down? Either with a gun or fire netting at it somehow?

[WinstonWolf]

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

That's the spirit

[Puggit]

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

Unless you hold top tier status with the airline, then that's the best course of action.

[krisdelta]

schmalex said:

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.

Dammit, this sounds really interesting! Lasers on sharks? Am I close?

[CAPP0]

Puggit said:

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

Unless you hold top tier status with the airline, then that's the best course of action.

I always take my driving licence with me when I fly, gives you that extra option of movement even if it wouldn't be possible to drive all the way home, eg one-way car hire to the ferry ports, or grabbing a one way car back here if you land in Aberdeen instead of Gatwick.

[MikeyC]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

What I was thinking also

Thoughts on stopping this:
Disrupt the control & video link frequencies
Disrupt the GPS signals - may be used in airports/planes though

[Bill]

Yay! Any educated guesses as to how long this'll take to sort out? Assuming it's open as planned at 10 and there's nothing tonight...

[Vaud]

Enter Drone Hunter

https://mashable.com/video/drone-hunter-catches-ro...

[megaphone]

Radio just said airport will be closed until at least 11am.

[wc98]

krisdelta said:

Dammit, this sounds really interesting! Lasers on sharks? Am I close?

surely just a bigger faster drone only available to police/military with a drop net on it ? get one of the kids from the drone racing league to fly it and just pick the nuisance drone up.if it is flying on a pre-programmed flight path it won't be taking evasive action. if it is being controlled at the time surely the signal can be traced ?

[Vaud]

MikeyC said:

What I was thinking also

Thoughts on stopping this:
Disrupt the control & video link frequencies
Disrupt the GPS signals - may be used in airports/planes though

No use disrupting if they are autonomous
Too much reliance on GPS

[p1stonhead]

This is a shocking level of disruption - and for another couple of hours still! Not even just Gatwick, but everywhere that has had to take Gatwicks planes.

Hope they find the idiots and thrown everything at them.

Whats the range on these things?

Isnt it like Die Hard 2 where 'they must be close maybe even on airport ground' type thing?

Edited by p1stonhead on Thursday 20th December 09:25