Gatwick Airport (UK) suspends flights due to Drone activity

[FoxhallGH]

Gatwick drones: airport suspends flights after reports of devices

A great big 'thanks' to these idiots who not only have the Police tracking them down, but have also alienated a significant number of travelling public - all who will now see our hobby as destructive and intrusive!
I heard announcers on the radio asking Gatwick Management staff "Why couldn't you just shoot them down?" ...
There is a 5-year prison sentence for entering Airport airspace like this (under UK Law). So I hope that whoever has done this - and it sounds almost like a co-ordinated 'attack' by two or more drones - gets the book thrown at them!

 

[Gooseman]

imbeciles. It's morons like these that will get the government into knee-jerk response mode and before you know it the hobby will become legislated out of existence. We all have to suffer the stigma of such behaviour too. Not nice.

 

[DavidJL39]

Shooting them down might be difficult but would it be possible to use some electronic means to jam the signal? As all legitimate planes seem to have been grounded that would cause a risk to them.

 

[DuffMog]

Shopplng channels are selling cheap disposable drones probably to idiots who have moved on from laser pens!

 

[Jerry]

I’m seeing this on the news right now and MP’s (bless em) discussing rules and justifying there wages and feeling sorry for those people that face disruptions. Now I don’t know if the reports are true or false but wellbeing in one of the most heavily covered cctv countries and every Tom **** and harry has a camera in their pocket, why are there no pictures of the drones on the news? .. I suppose you could google the details and expect there will be pics .. we see

 

[DuffMog]

Its a phone in subject on 5 live radio at the moment so more bad publicity

 

[Jerry]

Omg lol d I c k aka “Richard” is censored! .. the world, legislation and people’s morals is so messed up we think it’s normal, joe public believe all the silly stories in all areas of news (some will actually have some truth in them) and politicians will legislate more with generally no real thought for those they serve while actually having their own agenda, we will have more legislation and the public will have no more protection. .. rant over

 

[ataraxia]

Its a phone in subject on 5 live radio at the moment so more bad publicity

I'm listening to this at the moment, classic "all drones are evil" nonsense. Banning all drones because of this is like banning all cars because of those that drive dangerously.

 

[Congoblue]

According to BBC the drone was still in the air at 0900 GMT and the police are saying it is a "deliberate act" (intended to close the airport and cause maximum disruption, I presume they mean) but "not terrorism related".

 

[ataraxia]

Would it not be worth saying to the airport that if they can cover the cost, somebody gets their drone in the sky and rams the others down?

 

[Congoblue]

Well if the drone is visible there are all sorts of ways of dealing with it. Apparently there are 20 police "units" and a helicopter out looking for it so I can only think that a drone sighting has been reported but the authorities cannot actually find it.

 

[Keule]

somebody gets their drone in the sky and rams the others down?

Naaahh, that would be illegal too!
If DJI drones were used, it would be easy to locate both the drone and the operator by using Aeroscope.

 

[johnnybflyguy]

These people are imbeciles, causing thousands of pounds worth of disruption to Gatwick Airport.
They are going to get all drones banned.

 

[ataraxia]

Naaahh, that would be illegal too!
If DJI drones were used, it would be easy to locate both the drone and the operator by using Aeroscope.

Don't the police have their own drones? The number one priority at the moment should be to get the **** things out of the sky. I'd presume they're not DJI drones, they've been there for a very long time now, they've either got amazing batteries or a load of spares, they must run out at some point surely?

 

[DuffMog]

They must have a stack of batteries to keep flying this long.

 

[Harrissment]

These people are imbeciles, causing thousands of pounds worth of disruption to Gatwick Airport.
They are going to get all drones banned.

Millions of pounds!

 

[Keule]

That incident is like a core meltdown at a nuclear reactor.

 

[Congoblue]

They must have a stack of batteries to keep flying this long.

As with all these drone sighting reports, there are some things that don't add up here - how have they been flying since 2100 on Wednesday night when they were first reported? Why can't anyone find the drone or the operator? It would be very interesting to know really what is going on but I don't suppose we will ever find out.

 

[Harrissment]

Why haven’t we got one picture of this drone that has been flying all night and morning?

 

[Congoblue]

Why haven’t we got one picture of this drone that has been flying all night and morning?

There is this picture on the Daily Telegraph website, but that picture looks like Police helicopter to me