Police admit that some drone sightings during Gatwick closure crisis may have been of their own surveillance drones

[NetDep]

As many have said here, the ignorant and uninformed public will swallow anything that "authorities" shovel at them. To this point, from everything in the public realm that I have seen, the best that those responsible for the whole "Gatwick Hoax" can be described is clueless and incompetent.

As we know many of the drone sightings around airports have turned out to be birds, plastic bags or nothing. I too believe that this incident is whipping up public opinion against drones and those who fly them. This is especially sad since drones will be such a helpful technological tool going forward - there is little argument and I can only wonder who has a financial stake in seeing this progress be retarded? It will always be - follow the money. Conspiracy theories aside - I will put my tin foil hat back on and take my drone out to fly in the park and be asked, "Is that like that Gatwick drone that killed all those people?"

Fly safe, be happy and enjoy your hobby!!!!

 

[hoggdoc]

Yet again, statements from the police are being deliberately confused by the media and forums like this one. They have made two statements:

1) There is a chance that there was no drone - well yes, obviously. They have said this purely because of the lack of concrete evidence that there was one. It's a sensible thing to say, because it's a slight possibility, it means they are keeping an open mind judging by the evidence they have in front of them. However, it's been portrayed as "we don't know if there's a drone or not and therefore we don't know what we're doing".

2) Some drone sightings may have been police drones - again, no duh. There was a flurry of calls made by the public regarding drone sightings. Public at the airport were not being told exactly what the police were doing, therefore didn't know they were using their own drones, therefore reported drone activity that they didn't realise was planned by authorities.

So, we create headline number 3 by adding 1 and 2 together - "there was no rogue drone, it was a police drone and we didn't know it was us becuz we be stoopid doody heads". Why do people not realise that the media is stirring up this crap, so that journalists can sell more newspapers and websites can get more hits and therefore more money from advertisers. I think the police have handled this poorly but that's down to lack of education which is completely down to the CAA and Government ministers who introduced the new drone laws.

Question about #2. Just when did this "flurry" of calls start coming in to the police and has anyone actually seen the police logs of those calls with official time/date stamps nI seriously doubt it!

Here is my point at this point the police have been caught and of course they would do most anything to cover their tracks because of public option. So they had no concrete evidence yet they arrested and imprisoned the man and his wife based on what? Did the police arrest the person or persons making false reports that caused all this stuff to happen in the first place without any evidence?

 

[Asgard]

"I can't help but feel the CAA, who know everything there is to know about drones "

You've not had much dealings with the CAA have you?

 

[Vigylance]

At this point I'm just thinking it was some anti drone company trying to drum up some business.

 

[Drone on]

.
As a taxpayer footing the bill for this debacle I am wholly unsatisfied with the official line (if you can call it that) on this incident and disgusted at the waste of money and resource.


I do hope this incident is not allowed to ‘evaporate’ into the misty memory chronicles, where incidents like these affect our freedom for generations but are never publicly resolved.

You need to get after it and stay on it.

If you have cronies or an organization of CCA licensed pilots, rally the troops for DDOS via email, phone calls, your own news media follow ups, etc...Demand justice for the 'community'.

Do it on behalf of those whose plans were arrested because of over reaction. Being a public event, some contacts may be public domain

If you can get attention, especially challenging the news media (pit one against the other...which one is claiming to be first with the story?), others may think twice before looking for the easy blame.

It's time to shift the focus back onto guns, poor diet, lack of exercise, and economic struggles, and away from photos/videos of roof tops and tree tops.

 

[erkme73]

Can you imagine if the population reacted to other police activities like they do to .gov/nanny-state drones?

We have a SERIOUS problem at US airports. Roaming, vicious-looking German Shepards walking around the baggage claim areas, sniffing everyone's belongings. Imagine the potential for people getting bitten! Or getting rabies, or fleas!? The inhumanity. These dogs represent a serious threat to the traveling public, and we should shut down the airports pronto!

 

[Eagle Jr]

What is interesting and I haven't seen on this forum is that Gatwick was sold on Dec 28th. Could this have been an attempt to threaten to cancel the sale and drive the price down?