The AchieVer Posted December 24, 2018 Share Posted December 24, 2018 Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES Image captionFlights were suspended for more than 36 hours when a drone was first spotted The Gatwick Airport drone drama which grounded hundreds of flights will be discussed by ministers in a Christmas Eve conference call. Sussex Police insisted it was not "back to square one" after releasing an arrested man and woman without charge. It said it was investigating 67 drone sightings but had earlier raised the possibility there may have been no drone at all. Gatwick said there had been "multiple sightings" of the equipment. Around 1,000 flights were cancelled or diverted across three days last week after drones were reportedly spotted inside the perimeter of the UK's second biggest airport. Labour calls for inquiry into Gatwick drones How can a drone cause so much chaos? A 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman were released on Sunday after two nights in custody. The airport has offered a £50,000 reward, through Crimestoppers, and another £10,000 has been put up by the charity's chairman Lord Ashcroft to catch the culprits responsible for the chaos, which affected some 140,000 passengers. Image copyrightJACK TAYLOR/GETTY IMAGES Image captionFlights resumed from Gatwick Airport on Friday Image copyrightREUTERS Image captionAbout 140,000 passengers were affected Det Ch Supt Jason Tingley said he hoped the money will persuade someone to come forward with the vital clue. He said at the weekend it was a "possibility" there had never been a drone, as police had not been able to acquire any footage. But he later clarified: "We are interviewing those who have reported these sightings, are carrying out extensive house-to-house inquiries and carrying out a forensic examination of a damaged drone found near the perimeter of the airport near Horley, which is close to the last reported sighting." He said there were some "persons of interest" but would not reveal if police were close to making any further arrests. Ministers are expected to discuss the disruption later in a conference call, a government source confirmed. Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES Image captionThe airport was forced to shut its runway for spells on Wednesday and Friday and for all of Thursday Authorities regained control over the airfield early on Friday after the Army deployed unidentified military technology. An airport spokesman said: "We are clear that there were multiple confirmed sightings of drone activity at the airport. "Therefore we took the necessary actions to ensure the safety of passengers using our airport. Safety will always be our number one priority. "We continue to support the police with their investigations into this illegal and deliberate act to disrupt the airport's operations." It is believed that the Israeli-developed Drone Dome system, which can jam communications between the drone and its operator, was used. However, experts have said it does not enable the person responsible to be tracked down and captured. John Murray, professor of robotics and autonomous systems at the University of Hull, said it could only "take the drone out of the sky". source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luisam Posted December 25, 2018 Share Posted December 25, 2018 Obviously as price of drones drop and they are getting more powerful, the number of irresponsible drone users will increase. It's a "nice joke" for some distorted minds to close down an airport and to ground commercial planes for 3 days! Guess the solution might be the standard use some kind of "drone blockers" jamming the radio-frequency used to control them (unidentified military technology???) which might detect the source. And, of course, a very sever punishment for transgressors! But... how does this blocking might affect the airport's flight control? By the way, an even better and as irresponsible joke might be to simulate somehow the presence of drones.... hundreds of them, driving crazy airport authorities! 8 minutes ago, BioHazard said: It must be CHINA's fault, we should ban all Chinese drones for national security reason and end of the problem I bet, anyone using drones to disrupt airport operations in China might spend the rest of his useful (or maybe useless) life in prison doing forced labors! In any case, if you want to use your drone around the world, start by reading this instructive article https://uavcoach.com/drone-laws/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BioHazard Posted December 25, 2018 Share Posted December 25, 2018 It must be CHINA's fault, we should ban all Chinese drones for national security reason and end of the problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BioHazard Posted December 27, 2018 Share Posted December 27, 2018 I was been sarcastic and turn out to be fake news 🤣 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-46670714 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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