Drones over gatwick..

arknor said:
they arent really any more dangerous than a bird, how many times do airports shut down if there are a flock of birds around?
Click to expand...

A bird will attempt to fly away.. the motive and purposeful piloting plus drones could easily carry an explosive payload. Shrapnel (added for effect) would be more dangerous to the aircraft, crew and passengers.

On final approach or commuted runway takeoff or initial climb are the most risky.

Jail time.

The new navy carrier’s radar system can track over 3000 tennis ball sized object (ie drones) that could have a number of payloads.
 
Screeeech said:
How many of these incidents will happen, before the authorities go “nope” and make drones illegal, or heavily restrict/license them?
Click to expand...

At least one major catastrophe is pretty much the mandate in my opinion.


My personal tin foil hat opinion if anyone's interested:

They cant ban these things right now because public utilisation means the public are paying for the improvement and development of drones and other robotics. Once they are perfected enough they will be used to control and enslave humanity like anything else which can do so.

Just look at other robotics and how they are being funded and pushed into people's homes. "Oh you can buy this overpriced vacuum cleaner so you can sit down and get obese while the robot does all the work for you. And soon the robots will be able to get you cold beers from the fridge without you even wasting a single calorie!"
 
A friend of mine is at Gatwick this morning after trying to get back to Germany after going to the O2 last night - predictably it's utter mayhem! I can see a big crackdown happening soon, along with copycat drone operators.
 
arknor said:
they arent really any more dangerous than a bird, how many times do airports shut down if there are a flock of birds around?
Click to expand...

This is why airports have bird scaring systems in place, along with bird radars (area dependant). I've worked on a Geese radar before. Predections can be made for birds etc.

Drones are completely unpredictable, can't be scared away.
 
arknor said:
they arent really any more dangerous than a bird, how many times do airports shut down if there are a flock of birds around?
Click to expand...

Sorry buts that's completely wrong and I've worked in aviation for 23 years so I have the practical experience and knowledge to back up "why" it's wrong too as I've seen the damage birds do vs the damage by metal objects.

Anything soft like birds and their bones can damage or even destroy aircraft engines, so ingesting something hard, like all the metal/batteries etc in a drone, will cause absolute devastation to an aero-engine, far more than a "softer" bird will.

Should a bird hit any other the skin of an aircraft they usually punch a small hole in it, if they hit square on, but rarely do damage to the inner structures because they are soft and disintegrate on the outer skin. A drone isn't soft, the metal parts won't just punch a small hole in the skin, but penerate much further into the structure causing more damage, smashing pipes, cutting cables and now you've got damaged) Li-Ion drone batteries potentially causing an unextingushable (by the pilots) fire too. The AirFrance Concorde crash is a good example of what happens when metal hits an aircraft at take-off speed, planes aren't armoured so any metal smashing into one is never good.

So birds are bad, and airports spend a huge amount of money keeping birds away, but drones are far more dangerous.
 
Ok... So my first thought was that it was probably just someone messing around which caused this, however it they’ve closed the runway all night and it’s still closed now, after the Drones came back, I also assume 2x drones means multiple people involved.

Considering this is the busiest few days of the year for Gatwick - I’m wondering what the motive is?

Just some clowns causing chaos for fun?
Some sort of protest? (Eg; Brexit?)
State sponsored disruption?
 
As a shooter who’s hobby is completely locked down due to the potential actions of a few criminals/terrorists/mentalists it really annoys me when this hobby, which potentially has the same threat level manages to get away without the same licensing (police/GP approval). Admittedly the criminals and terrorists could probably still get hold of them no problem (exactly like with guns), but what is good for the goose is good for the gander, no?

Some low hanging fruit for a desperate politician trying to be seen as ‘doing something’ to please the thick masses if I ever saw it.
 
Is there any way to actually stop a drone though, or even track it to who owns it (excluding the obvious of it having gps with a home setting, or somebodies name written on it).
 
i saw a thing many years ago where they used an EMP device to disable a remote controlled copter, i'd have thought something like that would be sensible to have around airports, or maybe some sort of jammer to disable the drone control. at the very least, why are there no anti-drone drones?
as other said about battery life, the length of closure seems a bit much.
 
So according to the CEO of Gatwick, there's a drone flying around the airfield right now (0815) so whoever's doing it is not giving up and they obviously haven't caught them.

Obvious question - I wonder exactly how you stop it? I assume there are police cars and officers running all over the surrounding area trying to find the operator...
 
can a drone be controlled over the mobile phone network ?

ie install a sim card in the drone fly remotely?

who stands to profit from Gatwick being closed for lengthy periods? could this be corporate espionage at some level? or worse some nut trying to sort gatwicks stock price? remember the loon who bombed the football bus in Germany a while back to short the clubs stock price.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom