Gatwick drone incident

maybe its someone who is very clever...but a bit displaced in their thinking.....hopefully they'll be caught and dealt with...but I doubt it..they have been doing it for a while now dropping stuff of to the jail lad's....with little deterrent to stop them......where's the trained eagles,the net gun's and army marksmen?

ken anderson...ne..1...wasters dept...

The technology to put together a GPS guided system that starts its mission, executes it and then "hides" (to use your word) has been available for a number years. It is not that difficult to incorporate some degree of autonomous flight, collision avoidance and "item delivery" either.

However, these aspects (and worse) are outside the scope of casual users as they require deep pockets and some degree-level knowledge to assemble the system.

Whilst what you say about the pilot being anywhere in the world is true, it is also true that someone local to the departure point has to first position the device at the departure point and also arm (connect the battery) the device and ensure clear take off space is available. The actual flight(s) could be made days later, remotely or autonomously.

This was more or less something that a tech expert that they had on BBC News at lunchtime said. Apologies if you saw it, but essentially the usual guff about registration and education was asked about by the presenter and the techy's reply was pretty much if anyone was serious about causing trouble.....they could - and all outside of the regs that us poor saps are following. But then WE know all about that!

As for the current perpetrators, unless the cops get lucky then I'd suggest £100,000 reward money be put up for info as to who these people are, is offered, No honour among thieves or rogue dronies, I should think.

Shooting a drone down is not as easy at it sounds. I fly drones /UAV’s, call them what you want, professionally. I fly either the Phantom or Inspire around 100m above the ground. I don’t fly in the UK though. The drone is shot at very regularly where I work, with fully automatic weapons and very often there are several soldiers shooting at it. We’ve only lost 4 uavs in a year, yet we experience shooting twice a week, every week. I accept we never hover the machine but a shotgun would never reach us nor a water cannon. Jamming the GPS signal is the most effective but that doesn’t cause the machine to fall out of the sky and it’s not only us affected by it either.

It appears that the authorities now know there are two of them. If that is helpful at all is any ones guess.

From my perspective, there is almost certainly bound to be repercussions, will they affect us (fixed wing/helicopter) flyers is my concern. Legislation or additional regulation entered into with haste, or even after some consideration, could well have unwelcome impact on what i do and I guess most other aeromodelers.

Edited By Erfolg on 20/12/2018 15:15:00

I can imagine the BMFA must be sitting rather uncomfortably wondering whether their hard won exemption is going to be questioned following this incident. It shouldn't of course - the chances of this being a card carrying member of one of the major associations is minimal - but as others in the thread have observed, a politician tasked to "do something quickly" can be a dangerous and unpredictable animal...

Edited By MattyB on 20/12/2018 15:26:13

How very medievel of you. Are you volunteering to be the finger chopper?

Edited By Lima Hotel Foxtrot on 20/12/2018 16:05:27

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They have shut down Gatwick for a day. A sales pitch.

For a price, they can put items and devices of your choosing right into Europe's landmark buildings, and government establishments, and military facilities.

Got naff all to do with registration. Or licensing. Or hobbyists. This is pro work. Not morons out in force. They are teasing the police, toying with the airport, taking advantage of the fact that Gatwick will not operate with a drone messing about over the runway.

Of course I may yet eat those words. It might be disaffected kids. Seems unlikely though.

Edited By Nigel R on 20/12/2018 16:22:01

Edited By Roo Hawkins on 20/12/2018 16:19:48

All this doesn't ring true to me. Closing a major airport ALL DAY. I'm struggling to believe that a drone operator can avoid detection all through the daylight hours. I could believe it during darkness but when they are already on alert and something appears several times and is not traced back to source????

Methinks we are not being told the full story

The tinternet is going crackers, false flag, distraction, plot to claim the airways, Santas not been blamed yet.

That is my read on it as well.

Steve

Obviously a government plot to take our minds off the Brexit shambles.

Where are the videos, radar traces etc of these things?

Anyway, the airport will be superfluous shortly with all the pilot and rail strikes over Christmas.

It quite possibly is a distraction from something, but from what, I do not know, and maybe we never will.

Who is liable for any compensation or suchlike in this situation? Is it a blackmail plot?

I still reckon a sales pitch.

Drones made from components ordered directly from China. Never touched by human hands after landing on these shores. Built in a clean room. Abandoned if plod get near. No evidence or links to the operators.

Edited By Nigel R on 20/12/2018 16:54:59

I would like to know how they saw it in the dark, they're not easy to see in daylight.

I also think there is something else going on here...........

Not the airlines apparently. People will have to claim off their travel insurance.

An attempt to extort money out of Gatwick ? "That's a nice airport you've got there guv. It would be a shame if nothing could fly from it."

Steve

From the BMFA on Facebook...

"The BMFA has been asked to comment on the disruption caused by reports of drone incursions overnight at Gatwick Airport.

In the absence of the full details, we would not wish to speculate on the situation. However, the irresponsible actions are not helpful to us at a time when we are in the midst of ongoing negotiations with the Government on behalf of the model flying community.

All we can say with certainty is that it is impossible to legislate for idiots and the situation at Gatwick simply serves to demonstrate the difficulty in enforcing the law on those who deliberately choose to disregard it"

Surely these devices return to the pilots position. Follow it, and bobs your uncle. Either by sight or using police UAV.

Am I being too simplistic here?

The other thing that occurs to me, is it is simply a test of the emergency services response.

Right now, that seems to be a 14 hour game of whack-a-mole.

edit: to above, I think they are prepared to lose these devices.

Edited By Nigel R on 20/12/2018 17:19:51