Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Something, possibly

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Ken Shabby
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Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Something, possibly

Post by Ken Shabby »

BBC News reporting that Gatwick Airport has been closed because a drone (out two?) has been spotted flying over the field.
Last edited by Ken Shabby on Mon 24 Dec 2018, 12:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Abbo46
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by Abbo46 »

Just this moment re-opened, flights diverted across Europe.

Hampshire558
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by Hampshire558 »

Still shut. Looking at Planefinder, there's the early morning Emirates A388 landing at Heathrow, a TUI 787 gone to Manchester and BA 777 heading to Amsterdam amongst others.

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Pen Pusher
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by Pen Pusher »

Having seen this splashed all over the news and disruption caused, how many airports are going to be closed tonight from copy-cat incidents?.

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Phantom 892
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by Phantom 892 »

About time there were severe sentences for anyone doing things like this. :mad:

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Brevet Cable
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by Brevet Cable »

Got to catch them first.
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Pen Pusher
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by Pen Pusher »

Phantom 892 wrote:About time there were severe sentences for anyone doing things like this. :mad:


There is a 5 year prison sentence but as Brevet say's you've got to catch them first.

Drones and airports
The law says:

It is illegal to fly a drone within 1km of an airport or airfield boundary
Flying above 400ft (120m) - which increases the risk of a collision with a manned aircraft - is also illegal
Endangering the safety of an aircraft is a criminal offence which can carry a prison sentence of five years

Source: dronesafe.uk


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FarnboroJohn
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by FarnboroJohn »

Pen Pusher wrote:
Phantom 892 wrote:About time there were severe sentences for anyone doing things like this. :mad:


There is a 5 year prison sentence but as Brevet say's you've got to catch them first.

Brian


Recce the area with a drone - oh......

alisdairanderson
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by alisdairanderson »

Surely there must be several drones that are being used, as I wouldn't expect them to have a battery-life capable of such sustained periods of flight?

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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by Brevet Cable »

More than one, from the reports on the BBC :

Thousands of passengers at one of the UK's busiest airports are experiencing flight disruption after drones were seen over the airfield.

Gatwick's runway remains closed after two of the devices were seen nearby.

About 10,000 passengers were affected as flights were unable to take off and incoming planes were redirected - with some landing in Paris and Amsterdam.

Chief operating officer Chris Woodroofe said staff were trying to find a drone reported as still being in the air.

Passengers due to travel have been told to check the status of their flight, while Easyjet told its customers not to go to Gatwick if their flights have been cancelled.

European air traffic management group Eurocontrol said the runway would remain closed until 11:00 GMT.

The shutdown started just after 21:00 on Wednesday when two drones were spotted being flown over the airfield.

The runway was briefly reopened at about 03:01, the airport said, but forced to close again about 45 minutes later amid "a further sighting of drones".

Police units and a helicopter were still hunting for the drone operator after another device was reported just before 07:00.


Mr Woodroofe told the BBC two drones had been seen flying "over the perimeter fence and into where the runway operates from", sparking "very significant disruption".

He said police had not wanted to shoot the devices down because of the risk from stray bullets.


Jesus wept....did the Police really say that !! :facepalm:
If so, someone needs to have a long hard chat with them for even considering it in the first place ( or has some Senior Officer been watching too many Hollywood movies )
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by cg_341 »

You shoot them with rubber bullets, there was a trial a few years ago from memory. It's not as "Hollywood" as you make it out to be.

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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by Amp »

As the airport is shut a recce by drone is possible. Why not employ an anti-drone drone or an armed officer to get rid of the device, then check the wreck for prints etc. This is costing a very large amount in terms of cash and inconvenience. Perhaps things are being done already?
Last edited by Amp on Thu 20 Dec 2018, 9:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Wrexham Mackem
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by Wrexham Mackem »

I find it extremely hard to believe, and very alarming if true, that they couldn't/wouldn't just shoot it down. Or have some other means of bringing it down. I mean really? a little thing like that?

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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by Brevet Cable »

cg_341 wrote:You shoot them with rubber bullets, there was a trial a few years ago from memory. It's not as "Hollywood" as you make it out to be.

Plods at airports don't tend to be issued riot control gear.
As for your average 38-40mm baton round, they aren't exactly high-velocity & have a very short range - less than 50m, from memory - and I doubt if the 12g and smaller calibre would be much different ( and likely wouldn't do much damage )
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by vulcan558 »

Seen on the news that apparently it was hovering over the runways for hours, now most have a short run time of about 30 minutes and the cheaper toy like drones even less, so bit baffled with that statement.

Thing also is they have not got this drone, its flew away.
If it was say a Phantom drone then maybe phone or wi fi data could be used to locate the source, not sure if thats possible thou.
Just the allegations of it being over the airport for hours thou is the strange one.
Could be Aliens. :lmao:

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Brevet Cable
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by Brevet Cable »

Aren't the airport owners/operators currently involved in a consultation process to use their spare ( emergency ) runway along with the normal one?
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by sithrity »

Hasn't a type of "bird of prey" been trained to take down a drone, or did I dream that?
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by cg_341 »

That'll be the Dutch :clap:

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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by Brevet Cable »

Yes....they need to be present in the first place, though, and I don't think they'd be much use against the larger drones.
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jules48
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by jules48 »

Probably being controlled from a bunker overseas and underground that why they cannot anyone.lol

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pbeardmore
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by pbeardmore »

Just a matter of time before this happened. Interesting to consider what motivates someone to do this. An attention seeker or a new form of terror/disruption.

Our transport infrastructre has no slack so very easy to throw a spanner in the works. When you consider the cost of a couple of drones compared to the cost of the disruption (and how likely are you to be caught?)
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jalfrezi
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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by jalfrezi »

I'm surprised they don't have any jamming devices, or their own drones to counter these.

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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by pootle »

I fly drones as part of my work under CAA PfCO and this incident won't help the reputation that they have by any means!
The last sighting report I saw said one was visible at 08:45. I'd be surprised if they carry on in daylight for long.

You could relatively easily use several off the shelf drones to arrange this type of thing. Fly one into position in the dark with no lights, get where you want and then lights on! Have another move into position with lights off and then lights off on one, light up the other and so on and so on.
With apps like Litche you can pre-programme flight plans and be sitting a mile away from the site. Keep it in the dusk/dark and it could take days to find them! The one potential good thing is that if you do catch one of the units the downloadable flight plans might help you out following it up?

This has got to be some kind of organised group going for a result of disruption and real public impact. 'Weaponise' an easily accessible item thats a bit unusual like this and suddenly you seem to have all the power. Very few deterrents available in real time and look at the coverage and chaos they've caused. You could bring international air travel to its knees in a country if you planned it well enough.

Worrying times and I suspect there will be a huge over-reaction in legislative terms once the Movement have capacity to address any new subjects other than Br_ _ _ t!!

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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by DOUGHNUT »

Drones are difficult to spot and track. I have seen the small 'toy' drones with flashing LED lights and you have no perspective of either their size or distance, bit like those Chinese lanterns.
For a drone to be seen (or heard) assume they must be larger commercial survey drones. Common within the construction industry they can carry good quality cameras with direct video download. Not sure what radar signature they might have ?

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Re: Gatwick Airport Closed Due to Drones

Post by pbeardmore »

great post pootle, in contrast ot the guff coming from the media,

Even if this is a teenager mucking about (it seems more complex than that), it provides a great case study to third parties on how easy it is and how relatively helpless the security forces are.

Imagine a co-ordinated attempt at New York?
Last edited by pbeardmore on Thu 20 Dec 2018, 11:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
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