Gatwick drone - follow up article

[Cymru]

A very rare decent article in the Guardian (thats something you dont say any other day) about the infamous Gatwick Airport "drone" incident that caused carnage.

The mystery of the Gatwick drone

The long read: A drone sighting caused the airport to close for two days in 2018, but despite a lengthy police investigation, no culprit was ever found. So what exactly did people see in the Sussex sky?

www.theguardian.com

Updated with FOIA requests and so on. Ultimately it boils down to despite being the most heavily monitored place on earth there is no evidence a drone was ever there.

Quite a long read but shows how hysteria can rapidly spiral out of control.

 

[THE CYBORG]

 

[old man mavic]

it just confirms what people who fly drones ,like myself have been saying since it happened
show us the drone or drones that were supposed to have been seen ,the whole thing was a fiasco of biblical proportions ,that once it got going was totally out of control ,and no one wanted to admit it was all fake

 

[Cymru]

Once they dig in far enough its impossible to reverse course and have to double down - it all becomes about saving face (same as lockdowns now).

One site i did find linked in that is the AirProx Reality Check ( About ) which i didnt know existed. Nicely debunks a lot of the "confirmed drone" incidents which are literally accepted at face value with no checking by the AirProx board.

 

[ShadowCat]

A very rare decent article in the Guardian (thats something you dont say any other day) about the infamous Gatwick Airport "drone" incident that caused carnage.

The mystery of the Gatwick drone

The long read: A drone sighting caused the airport to close for two days in 2018, but despite a lengthy police investigation, no culprit was ever found. So what exactly did people see in the Sussex sky?

www.theguardian.com

Updated with FOIA requests and so on. Ultimately it boils down to despite being the most heavily monitored place on earth there is no evidence a drone was ever there.

Quite a long read but shows how hysteria can rapidly spiral out of control.

There is a condition called inattention blindness we all suffer from. We only see what we expect to see not what is actually there. Worth watching as Drone Pilots tend to get fixated on the drone.

 

[BarrieW]

Heard a rumour some time ago that it may have been a police or airport drone circling the perimeter fence but no- one would admit it, could be false info but who knows??

 

[Cymru]

Well if you read the article it states the police drone was looking and may have added to the drone sightings....

 

[ShadowCat]

Heard a rumour some time ago that it may have been a police or airport drone circling the perimeter fence but no- one would admit it, could be false info but who knows??woi

Would you if you were as incompetent?

 

[zocalo]

Heard a rumour some time ago that it may have been a police or airport drone circling the perimeter fence but no- one would admit it, could be false info but who knows??

IIRC, they did officially acknowledge that some of the claimed sightings made by the public *might* have been (which I personally take as "almost certainly were") drones being operated by the police to try and locate where the operators of the alleged drone that started the whole mess were operating from. Despite the location, there is still quite a bit of open land around Gatwick, and checking all that from a car or on foot is pretty much a non-starter, so of course the police would resort to drones and helicopters to speed up the recon.

Some of the periods of disruption were also after dark, so with all the drone hysteria it's also quite possible that some of the claimed sightings could have been helicopters or aircraft given how hard it is to judge the height of objects without a frame of reference at the best of times, let alone at night when all you can see is some lights in the sky. You also see what you want to see; if the airport has been shutdown, there are lights in the night sky, then it must be the rogue drone, right? Couldn't possibly be a police helicopter, police drone, aircraft in a holding pattern, aircraft passing overhead, weather balloon, the planet Venus, flock of birds, swamp gas, alien spaceship, or any of the numerous mundane things you see all the time that now get blamed on drones...

 

[Johnmcl7]

An unusually well written article especially given the media were contributing to the hysteria at the time and I'm not sure if it was the Guardian or a similar newspaper but one of them were claiming with an image of a DJI drone that you could walk into Currys (a high street electrical store) and then immediately fly the drone into an airport area without issue. There was no mention at all of geofencing or other restrictions the DJI drones come with and numerous people asked me at the time why were drones allowed to do this and I saw frequent posts on general forums that there needs to be proper rules for drones. When I explained there was a thorough drone code and drones like mine were software restricted they were surprised.

 

[rehkram]

the whole thing was a fiasco of biblical proportions

My mind is playing tricks on me. First time through I read that as "a fiasco of tabloid proportions"

 

[Cymru]

Despite the location, there is still quite a bit of open land around Gatwick, and checking all that from a car or on foot is pretty much a non-starter, so of course the police would resort to drones and helicopters to speed up the recon.

That never really washed for me. If you're looking for a drone visually you're doing it wrong.
Anyone with a laptop and £50 SDR dongle can instantly detect the uplink and downlink transmissions and KNOW theres a drone in the area. (drone etc)
Given they had the military deployed AND an Aeroscope setup this seems unlikely. Even a home built drone would easily show up on the transmission bands instantly and from miles away.

That fact alone leads me to believe that there certainly wasnt one present for most of the incident duration (although doesnt preclude one initially that started the event).

 

[zocalo]

That never really washed for me. If you're looking for a drone visually you're doing it wrong.
Anyone with a laptop and £50 SDR dongle can instantly detect the uplink and downlink transmissions and KNOW theres a drone in the area. (drone etc)
Given they had the military deployed AND an Aeroscope setup this seems unlikely. Even a home built drone would easily show up on the transmission bands instantly and from miles away.

That fact alone leads me to believe that there certainly wasnt one present for most of the incident duration (although doesnt preclude one initially that started the event).

None the less, according to the article that is what they did as the first step - helicopters and cars driving around with blues and twos in the hope of flushing out any perps. Maybe they had some SDR equipment as well, maybe they did not, (most probably they did not). It's not clear when police drones were first deployed, but it seems likely to have been pretty early, again in the hopes of flushing the perps or getting a lucky spot.

IIRC, deployment of Aeroscope happened the next day, and the military hardware appeared some time around the day after that, and once the military was on the scene it's pretty clear from reporting that no unauthorised drones were detected at all. IMO, it's entirely *possible* there was a drone there during the initial disruption, but also entirely possible that there was never a drone there to start with, the latter probably being more likely. However, *if* there was a drone, then my guess would be it was a pilot aiming to get some footage for whatever reason, that left the area for good as soon as it became clear they'd caused a major incident (e.g. PDQ after the first reported sighting and the shutdown hitting the news), maybe even as a result of being spooked by the police. Most likely they would then have deleting any footage and spent the next few weeks/months wondering if every knock at the door might be the police - not pleasant, but still getting of lightly given the impact. If that is what happened, then I hope they destroyed the drone as well and haven't bothered to replace it because that's not the kind of jerk I want in our community, even if they did learn their lesson.

 

[Cymru]

That what i said its possible there was an initial drone (or a plastic bag as had caused alerts there before). It may have been inside the no fly zone or simply just close to it and spotted.
But after that once the cavalry arrived i find it very hard to believe there was anything at all in that area and really cant believe any of the future sightings at all being anything except police.

 

[Cymru]