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"Deliberate drone attack" shuts down Gatwick airport

atmilatos wrote:

Also animals don’t normally have “suicide” intentions and when they see danger they will go away

Pheasants buck that trend, particularly on road sides although I’ve also seen them fly into trees and kill themselves.

This is not a matter of what is legally allowed, as it seems fairly clear these operations are being down deliberately to disrupt. Whatever the law may say about it.

One press report says the practice is to shut the airport for 30 mins upon a drone sighting, on the basis that the battery cannot last longer than that.

In this case multiple batteries (or drones) are being used, and one report suggested it could be a specially constructed drone, which obviously could carry a big battery.

I think in this case the airport is worried about legal liability if something big happens…

The Daily Trash has a rather fuzzy video of the drone
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6513923/Chaos-Gatwick-drone-spotted-near-airport-SHUTS-runway.html

Quite likely whoever is doing this is monitoring the airport frequencies so he gets the drone out when they are about to re-open.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

atmilatos wrote:

Some institutions have studied the danger of a drone collision, but aviation has not adopted anything yet.

In engine certification tests, people used to throw a lot of stuff in: chickens, bottle of glass, metallic pieces….the goal was to have something that flies anyway, robust to impacts where it broke down without jeopardizing the safety, still cost a lot of money to inspect/repair….I am note sure what is the impact on fuselage, especially with new composite materials but on low altitudes, I don’t think it will be that dramatic neither

So you are left with who bares the financial risk from a potential drone collision, I think the airport made their call on this as nothing there yet on this in their agreements with airliners and decided to shut the whole thing down, they do it in extreme weather, thick snow or big thunderstorms around so nothing new

To me it seems either a “large scale drone attack” or “legal panic on airport side”?

I don’t think it comes from a 6 years old who opened his Chrismas present early

Last Edited by Ibra at 20 Dec 19:04
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Ibra wrote:

To me it seems either a “large scale drone attack” or “legal panic on airport side”?

Both I guess. It is beyond belief that such an act can shut down an airport the size of LGW.

I am also stunned at the regulation that drones can be flown within one km of the airfield boundary. It is 5 km here in Switzerland. Also 5 years in prison is a laugh looking at what they achieve with this: even though I don’t think that aspect has been tought through, fwiw they might well be charged for interfering with airline operations aka the sanctions similar to hijack.

Nevertheless, the reaction to shut the airport down will get quite a lot of folk thinking quite massively about the impact which can be caused by a mere drone. My guess is that as a consequence there will be a massive change in ruling regarding the use of drones, if not a nationwide (or Europewide) ban as an emergency measure.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

I choose common sense!

In Greece with the 8 kilometres prohibition from airports they didn’t achieve much..



UK should be an example to rest of Europe in regards of Aviation(in general) bmo.

Actually I am laughing my ass off how someone with a remote controlled toy can provoke this kind of collective panic and overreaction.

I sincerely hope the “Gatwick drone hunters“ are all wearing their yellow hi vis vests correctly!

Last Edited by cessnatraveller at 21 Dec 00:39

Mooney_Driver wrote:

don’t think they would shut down an airport over a day over a drone and they are definitly more pro-active when it comes to shooting at things which get in the way.

Possibly. However, the FAA is also much more proactive with integrating UAS into the airspace. There is a registration requirement and for professional flying a license (Part 107) which is very heavy on airspace and airport avoidance. Also, DJI, who are far and away the market leader, implement geofencing around airports. Not something that cannot be hacked, of course, and if you’re using a home-made drone with bad intent then all bets are off, but it does keep the idiots at bay, at least to a degree.

As for finding the operator – good luck with that. He can be anywhere in a radius of a few miles and doesn’t actually need to control the drone. A pre-programmed course will do nicely. The best way would really be to shoot the thing down, if it’s a DJI drone then the purchaser can be identified by part numbers inside the device. That’s how the FAA got the guy who downed an Army helicopter in NY.

Most likely somebody knows this guy. He has been out of the house a lot during the night, flying the thing.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

FLIGHT DISRUPTION
Friday 21st December 06:14
Gatwick’s runway is currently available and a limited number of aircraft are scheduled for departure and arrival since the drone is on a short technical stop at its homebase in order to recharge batteries.

Last drone sighting was late last night i.e. the guy is flying it in darkness. They obviously cannot have airliners operating in that situation. Also they cannot shoot at it during the night, obviously…

A drone does have a good thermal (IR) signature though… as would anyone in the woods around Gatwick at night.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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