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Heathrow Departures Stopped As Drone Spotted

It only takes a phone call to cause this kind of disruption. No one even needs to see a drone, it's enough to say they saw one. We had many years of this in Northern Ireland. The difficulty for the powers-that-be is knowing which is an actual threat and which is just a hoax. The authorities have to err on the side of caution even though 'A drone was reported to have been sighted' could have been someone's over-active imagination. Here we go again!
 
It only takes a phone call to cause this kind of disruption. No one even needs to see a drone, it's enough to say they saw one.

The thought did occur to me as well. It was already what passes for "dark" at LHR when the flights stopped, so for them to resume around an hour latter seems awfully fast to confirm whether or not there was a drone.

Barring an arrest (which no one seems to be reporting yet), the only way I can see that happening is if LHR's anti-drone tech is good enough to confirm there wasn't a drone in the area of the reported sighting, or it was a crank call and something gave it away as such.
 
Heeeeere's Johhny ...

JD.jpg
 
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The thought did occur to me as well. It was already what passes for "dark" at LHR when the flights stopped, so for them to resume around an hour latter seems awfully fast to confirm whether or not there was a drone.

Barring an arrest (which no one seems to be reporting yet), the only way I can see that happening is if LHR's anti-drone tech is good enough to confirm there wasn't a drone in the area of the reported sighting, or it was a crank call and something gave it away as such.
Maybe since the fiasco at Gatwick, they now know that the max. loiter time for a drone is about 30 minutes!
 
Regarding if it was a phone call or a hoax it’s hit the news again, it’s just pushing the knife further in our backs.
 
Regarding if it was a phone call or a hoax it’s hit the news again, it’s just pushing the knife further in our backs.
Yeah - I was wondering what that pain was between my shoulder-blades! :(
 
Maybe since the fiasco at Gatwick, they now know that the max. loiter time for a drone is about 30 minutes!

I'd be shocked if they were not already aware of that before Gatwick, or would have been pretty soon after the disruption started. LGW wasn't the first time drones have been spotted near airports after all. What that info doesn't help with is the scenario of someone, or multiple people, with more than one drone. For flights to resume so fast, they're either confident in whatever anti-drone tech they have telling them that the skies were clear, or they've been able to rule out an actual drone as the cause of the sighting.

I guess we'll just have to wait for the completely fair and unbiased media coverage later on... /sarcasm
 
Maybe not a crank call then - make of this update to the BBC's story what you will:

BBC cameraman Martin Roberts said he was driving on the M25 past Heathrow airport at about 17:45 GMT when he saw what he believes was a drone.

"I could see, I'd say around 300 feet up, very bright, stationary flashing red and green lights, over the Harmondsworth area," he said.

"I could tell it was a drone - these things have got quite distinctive lights - not a helicopter.

"The lights were very close together. It was a very clear night and the object was stationary, it was turning very, very slightly. I could see it very clearly, I'd say for about four to five minutes."

The lights of a drone. Around 300ft up. In the dark.
 
That's it then - it's official ... Drones are the new flying saucers! The aliens are going to be pissed! All the abductions, lights in the skies, cattle mutilations ... It's all going to be Drones from now on. How are the Aliens going to keep their reputations ... :eek:
 
It’s something strange in the water on the other side of the pond
I think it is called droneaphobia it's caused by a sudden out break of unsubstantiated drone sightings around airports and the likes must be an epidemic better warn the WHO about it so a vaccine can be made available
 
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