I’m not sure about that, I was caught up in it. My flight into Gatwick from Italy at that time was cancelled and I certainly wasn’t arriving at night! As it took days to get back it’s all a blurr.
My memory is rubbish too (I narrowly avoided it) but I think the initial reports were at night, and then they shut the airport for the following day(s) even in daytime.
If it was a real drone, flying it at night would have made it far harder to track down where it lands. Gatwick is surrounded by miles of forest. So many places to hide.
I’m also skeptical there was a drone. The spotters surely would have seen it and photographed it, especially with the news frenzy publicising it.
I’m not suggesting malice (on the part of those who claimed to see the drone). The trouble is seeing is NOT believing, and in poor lighting conditions, it can be very easy to see things that aren’t actually there because your brain fills in the details as to what you expect to see from incomplete information. Why do you think ghosts are only ever seen in poor lighting conditions?
Drone sightings back at Gatwick
The place seems to have got rid of the “military equipment” in March so any sighting of anything is likely to shut it down again.
Funnily enough, I was flying past Gatwick on the FMC when that one happened. It was fairly chaotic for a bit. I did offer to go and have a look for the drone, but they didn’t take me up!
I had not read the April article yet.
“The gold commander”? Seriously? Why not “supreme lama” while they’re at it?
denopa wrote:
“The gold commander”? Seriously?
Brexit has a Gold and Silver Commander as well. They are present in COBRA whenever Brexit looms.
Timothy wrote:
Brexit has a Gold and Silver Commander as well. They are present in COBRA whenever Brexit looms.
Sometimes you just have to love the Brits.
Airborne_Again wrote:
Sometimes you just have to love the Brits.
I guess they’re just titles for a function. Although it is a bit Star Wars, it’s clear what they mean.
denopa wrote:
“The gold commander”? Seriously?
That is the typical command structure used by the UK emergency services for any event/incident medium to large. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold%E2%80%93silver%E2%80%93bronze_command_structure
So it’s likely some other organisations are following the same model.
