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Gatwick Airport Closed After Drone Sightings

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IanSR

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Whoever runs Gatwick Airport. What an idiot, I'm 99% sure at 9pm last night, it was pissing with rain here (a few miles north of Gatwick) all the way down to my dads place which is south of the airport, yet they saw multiple drones flying round.

The stupid thing is, there has already been multiple examples of Joe public buying this hook line and sinker, people demanding the drones be shot down blah blah, and banned fucking morons, show me a drone then I'll believe you otherwise this is just another unidentified object labelled as a drone, like every other sighting has been in the UK.
 
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IanSR said:
Whoever runs Gatwick Airport. What a ****ing idiot, I'm 99% sure at 9pm last night, it was ****ing with rain here (a few miles north of Gatwick) all the way down to my dads place which is south of the airport, yet they saw multiple drones flying round.

The stupid thing is, there has already been multiple examples of Joe public buying this hook line and sinker, people demanding the drones be shot down blah blah, and banned ****ing morons, show me a drone then I'll believe you otherwise this is just another unidentified object labelled as a drone, like every other sighting has been in the UK.
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Hang on, you are trying to make out that whatever has been flying over Gatwick all night (on and off as obviously needs charging/replacing etc.) is not a drone?

It's quite clear that this is a deliberate act to cause as much disruption as possible. It's only a matter of time before there is a serious incident involving a drone and an aircraft, whether it be accidental or deliberate.
 
Rob said:
Hang on, you are trying to make out that whatever has been flying over Gatwick all night (on and off as obviously needs charging/replacing etc.) is not a drone?

It's quite clear that this is a deliberate act to cause as much disruption as possible. It's only a matter of time before there is a serious incident involving a drone and an aircraft, whether it be accidental or deliberate.
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Yes I'm saying I'd like to see evidence of the drone rather than someone seeing something in the sky and assuming it was a drone (which is what all BALPA members have been told to do), plus as I said, it was raining, hard, at 9pm last night, drones don't fly in the rain unless you make very advanced technical changes to them that are frankly far beyond the ability of average Joe.

Seriously think about it for a minute, most drones on average fly for a maximum of 30 minutes, most idiots buy their drones from Argos and the only option there is DJI, all DJI drones come with geofencing which again, unless you know what you are doing, is virtually impossible to defeat, the geofencing is two fold, if you fly near Gatwick the drone will land itself about 2 miles away (DJI geofencing is stricter than the law) and if within the red zone, the craft will not take off, period, average Joe would not know how to over-ride it, and it is very difficult to defeat, placing foil over the sensor simply puts the drone into manual mode, which most people don't have the skill set to fly in.

So if this "drone" turns out to be a consumer DJI product (because all drone near misses are DJI products even though DJI always turn over flight data to the authorities, see the New York collision for example), then I call horseshit on this sighting until I see a video or photo of the craft itself because knowing the incompetence of Gatwick and the authorities, if it was an actual drone, this was probably a commercial flight that didn't tell ATC, like what happened the last time Gatwick got closed (yeah they don't make that public because the last shutdown was caused by a BBC commercial flyer trying to film the immigration center, but that doesn't fit the narrative so doesn't get mentioned).

So considering all of that, if you'd spent £1000+ on a drone, would the first thing you'd do is go to Gatwick and fly it? Last night they were saying there were four circling the airport together, now it's two, tomorrow it'll be one, and in three months the airprox report will be released revealing it was a ground worker who saw a drone a mile away at the end of the runway, utter bullshit, you can't even see a drone a few hundred meters away if you don't know what you're looking for.

So yes, I'm calling bullshit on this until I see actual physical evidence of the drone, there has been far too many "drone sightings" recently that have turned out to be bin bags, birds and even other fucking planes for these people to be taken seriously anymore without actual verifiable evidence, I know 90% of the flyers in the area because we're all members of the same club, and I can assure you not one of them is stupid enough to do something like this.

However, if it does turn out to be the case of a drone, then I do fully support the authorities and actively encourage them to throw the book at the pilot, the law as it stands gives them ample power to deal with the pilot (unlimited fine + five years in jail) without having to bring in further draconian regulations, the law is already very very strict, so yes, go for it, but because there has been so many Tom Thumb's crying wolf over the last year, nobody outside of the general public, like you, believes any of these reports anymore.
 
It's clearly not someone being silly playing with their new drone over Gatwick airport for a laugh. It looks like an organised crime using what has been described as an 'industrial drone' of a large scale, so not one that you can go and buy down at your local shop.

If this drone sighting was a bird or a bin bag (seriously trying to stop myself laughing right now) then why would the airport still be closed? And why would the police be appealing for information via 999 rather than 101?
 
You may laugh, but the drone near miss at 15000 feet over Richmond Park last year? It was a bin bag, the airprox report was none too complimentary of the pilot and his eyesight skills.

So if it's an "industrial drone" that to me suggests a Matrice style copter, those are £30000 and the sale is so strictly controlled not even I could get one (you need a PTFC and other stuff) and honestly, I doubt a backyard terrorist could build one either, they are so technically advanced even the most qualified person would have trouble putting one together.

I don't know why the airport is still closed, my assumption is nobody in airport management is willing to take the responsibility to re-open it because they're so scared of being blamed if something does happen, and lately public opinion has been swaying away from the poor pilots (people are seeing through the bullshit) towards the drone pilots not being the idiots they're made out to be, so something like this will certainly bring public opinion back in the vein of ban them.

It's rumoured that the recent DFT consultation into drone regulations didn't attract the desired response from the public, and BALPA are mighty pissed about it, so I'm not suprised this has happened, most of the "celebrities" within the industry have been predicting this for the last few weeks, so they have about 5000 cameras covering Gatwick and the surrounding area, surely one got a pic of it? That's all I'm asking for.

Lets assume for one second that a Matrice was behind the incident, what the heck was PC plod doing all night? Those things are massive and easy to follow (I know that goes contuary to what I said earlier but the Matrice is huge), why didn't they get the copper chopper up, follow the drone with the thermal camera to where it landed, and then follow the person home, those size copters are not the kind of thing you throw in a backpack, they take 30 minutes to dismantle to get in a car etc. Come one, think about it sensibly, either the authorities are incompetent clowns, or there was no drone.

It's 12 hours after the initial shutdown, even the most stupidest person is long gone, there's no reason to keep the airport closed now until it shows up again, then be prepared and have a drone net handy, they're not that overly expensive.
 
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IanSR said:
You may laugh, but the drone near miss at 15000 feet over Richmond Park last year? It was a bin bag, the airprox report was none too complimentary of the pilot and his eyesight skills.

So if it's an "industrial drone" that to me suggests a Matrice style copter, those are £30000 and the sale is so strictly controlled not even I could get one (you need a PTFC and other stuff) and honestly, I doubt a backyard terrorist could build one either, they are so technically advanced even the most qualified person would have trouble putting one together.

I don't know why the airport is still closed, my assumption is nobody in airport management is willing to take the responsibility to re-open it because they're so scared of being blamed if something does happen, and lately public opinion has been swaying away from the poor pilots (people are seeing through the bull****) towards the drone pilots not being the idiots they're made out to be, so something like this will certainly bring public opinion back in the vein of ban them.

It's rumoured that the recent DFT consultation into drone regulations didn't attract the desired response from the public, and BALPA are mighty ****ed about it, so I'm not suprised this has happened, most of the "celebrities" within the industry have been predicting this for the last few weeks, so they have about 5000 cameras covering Gatwick and the surrounding area, surely one got a pic of it? That's all I'm asking for.

Lets assume for one second that a Matrice was behind the incident, what the **** was PC plod doing all night? Those things are massive and easy to follow (I know that goes contuary to what I said earlier but the Matrice is huge), why didn't they get the copper chopper up, follow the drone with the thermal camera to where it landed, and then follow the person home, those size copters are not the kind of thing you throw in a backpack, they take 30 minutes to dismantle to get in a car etc. Come one, think about it sensibly, either the authorities are incompetent clowns, or there was no drone.

It's 12 hours after the initial shutdown, even the most stupidest person is long gone, there's no reason to keep the airport closed now until it shows up again, then be prepared and have a drone net handy, they're not that overly expensive.
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Neither is some of the automated drone capture tech developed initially for military base protection, at least not compared to a shutdown.

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Gatwick is run by morons though so they won't think of it that way.

To give you some context two roads run under the terminal building, the A23 and a service road, both are accessible to the public. About ten years ago they put in a new bus route which ran down the B road alongside the A23, it cost millions, and a shiny nice bus shelter was built just outside the terminal building.

After about three months later the road was shut, aparantly Gatwick management concluded it was a security risk having a public transport system go under the terminal building because terrorists would detonate a bomb under it while the bus passed, so to combat this, the bus route was re-routed 75 feet to the right onto the inside lane of the A23 (which as you may remember, also runs under the terminal building) because terrorists wouldn't detonate a bomb on a public highway (yes, that was the excuse given).

The loss of the inside lane now mean that the roads are gridlocked round Gatwick every day from 4pm to 8pm, it'll take 40 minutes to get from one side of the terminal building to the other because of the loss of the inside lane (which is now the bus lane) which as indirectly made it easier for anybody to blow up the terminal, they no longer have to time thing correctly, because you'll spend tend minutes stopped under it now, but you got it, terrorists won't set of a bomb there anymore, the threat has been thwarted.

Same kind of idiots that made this decision, still work there today and are probably the reason why the airport hasn't re-opened yet.
 
ROFL aparantly as @Rob said it is a Matrice style drone (although I'd still like to see a photo of it rather than photos of coppers), and it taunts them, flies off for a battery change, then comes back for more taunting and has supposedly being going on all night.

Contuary to the opinion of the guy on Sky News earlier, these are neither easy or cheap to build (it might be for him or me, but not Joe public) I can think of a hundred things I'd do with one of these before I got to 'torment airport".

Latest I heard is they won't send up the copper chopper to trace it because they're scared it might down it, well they obviously never saw how easily a lowly news helicopter downed a drone in Hawaii last year then, so they're chasing it by foot on the ground.

Seriously, is Mr Bean in charge of this investigation or what? Just get the copper chopper up, if the drone is as big as they say it is, you'll be able to follow it with the thermal camera from a distance and direct ground coppers to it's landing location, job done.

At least it's peaceful at the mo, no planes going over my house shaking it to bits lol.
 
IanSR said:
ROFL aparantly as @Rob said it is a Matrice style drone (although I'd still like to see a photo of it rather than photos of coppers), and it taunts them, flies off for a battery change, then comes back for more taunting and has supposedly being going on all night.

Contuary to the opinion of the guy on Sky News earlier, these are neither easy or cheap to build (it might be for him or me, but not Joe public) I can think of a hundred things I'd do with one of these before I got to 'torment airport".

Latest I heard is they won't send up the copper chopper to trace it because they're scared it might down it, well they obviously never saw how easily a lowly news helicopter downed a drone in Hawaii last year then, so they're chasing it by foot on the ground.

Seriously, is Mr Bean in charge of this investigation or what? Just get the copper chopper up, if the drone is as big as they say it is, you'll be able to follow it with the thermal camera from a distance and direct ground coppers to it's landing location, job done.

At least it's peaceful at the mo, no planes going over my house shaking it to bits lol.
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Surely they would have contacted DJI and asked them for advise on tracking the remote down by now?
Makes me thing something dodgy is going on on the police side of things

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IanSR said:
Joe public
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I don't know much about drones, but it clearly isn't Joe Public behind this. It's some kind of environmental protest I reckon.

And I doubt Gatwick would shut their airport for > 12 hours at the busiest time of the year for no reason whatsoever, or indeed a floating bin bag!
 
I've decided to move these posts to their own thread. The discussion is far too serious for the Tavern and it's more news than a pet hate!
 
Stuie said:
I don't know much about drones, but it clearly isn't Joe Public behind this. It's some kind of environmental protest I reckon.

And I doubt Gatwick would shut their airport for > 12 hours at the busiest time of the year for no reason whatsoever, or indeed a floating bin bag!
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Auckland International was recently shutdown due to a drone, that later turned out to be a crow.

The Mrs said something similar about an enviromental protest, or that it was a disgruntled ex-employee of the airport getting their own back, makes sense if what they've said is correct.

Unfortunately it is the hobbiests who will bear the brunt of any backlash over this.

ihaveaspergers said:
Surely they would have contacted DJI and asked them for advise on tracking the remote down by now?
Makes me thing something dodgy is going on on the police side of things.
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It's called incompetence, Surrey and Sussex rozza couldn't organise a party in a pub, they're chasing a drone round the airfield on foot, that tells you enough.

A DJI drone wouldn't have got within 2 miles of the airport due to its NFZ software.
 
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DiogoJ42 said:
This is obviously a cover up for the real news. It's either aliens, or the airport hase been shut down while it is converted in to a death camp for all us evil straight brexit-voting white men.
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Well they have locked down the airport and won't let anybody out.....
 
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