Gatwick Airport: Drone sightings cause delays

Dasit said:
Does anyone know if shooting them out the sky would be possible?

Could a person with say a sniper rifle, hit these things when they are moving?


It must be almost impossible to catch people operating these drones, as you can do it from a long distance.
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If you shoot a bullet at them it has to land somewhere!
In an airport this is a no no.

But something needs to be done.
Maybe a five year sentence may send a message.
 
clubchamp98 said:
If you shoot a bullet at them it has to land somewhere!
In an airport this is a no no.

But something needs to be done.
Maybe a five year sentence may send a message.
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Yes, but I understood that for these things to be a danger to aircraft they are likely to be out on the airfield, (e.g. in the proximity of the runway, the landing thresholds, take off zones etc), not in the airport terminal areas. The airfield is a massive open space with plenty of room for a stray shot should it miss the flying object. Why should a bullet be used anyway? It just needs to be something that disables and brings down the drone. Bullets aren't used in clay pigeon shooting and although a lot more technical and advanced, at face value the drone situation is an enhanced version of this. Which leads me to suggest there is more to this than is currently being reported.
 
Hard to believe there is no footage of these things buzzing about from either the media or stranded passengers via social media.

Unless I am missing something. Strange story this.
 
garyinderry said:
Hard to believe there is no footage of these things buzzing about from either the media or stranded passengers via social media.

Unless I am missing something. Strange story this.
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If it is dangerous to be in the air space around Gatwick how do you think the footage could be achieved. Media helicopters would be banned from the area and I doubt the police would be happy with large groups of journalists hanging around the perimeter making their jobs harder.
 
woofers said:
Yes, but I understood that for these things to be a danger to aircraft they are likely to be out on the airfield, (e.g. in the proximity of the runway, the landing thresholds, take off zones etc), not in the airport terminal areas. The airfield is a massive open space with plenty of room for a stray shot should it miss the flying object. Why should a bullet be used anyway? It just needs to be something that disables and brings down the drone. Bullets aren't used in clay pigeon shooting and although a lot more technical and advanced, at face value the drone situation is an enhanced version of this. Which leads me to suggest there is more to this than is currently being reported.
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Any stray metal on a runway can be thrown up by the front wheel of a plane and hit an engine or wing and disaster.
This is what happened to Concorde when it crashed a bit of stray metal that wasn’t spotted of another aircraft .

Just seen on the local news they have trained birds of prey to bring them down that would be a good result.
Not sure if a commercial one is to big though.
 
Old Skier said:
If it is dangerous to be in the air space around Gatwick how do you think the footage could be achieved. Media helicopters would be banned from the area and I doubt the police would be happy with large groups of journalists hanging around the perimeter making their jobs harder.
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There's 1000s of people with phones in their pockets. Travellers and employees. There should be loads of amateur footage.
 
Old Skier said:
If it is dangerous to be in the air space around Gatwick how do you think the footage could be achieved. Media helicopters would be banned from the area and I doubt the police would be happy with large groups of journalists hanging around the perimeter making their jobs harder.
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Can't understand how the operators haven't been spotted. Surely they would have to be in the vicinity of the perimeter fence.. It's definitely an unusual situation and hopefully the military intervention will bring it to a conclusion. The knock on effect though is going to take several days to sort. I can't see any motive that justifies potentially ruining Christmas for so many people
 
There was a guy on the ITV news earlier saying there is signal blocking devices available. He reckoned 2 devices would be enough to protect Gatwick and 3 would be enough to protect Heathrow. But seemingly the law would need to be changed to allow them to be used.
 
I really do wonder if there's more to this than meets the eye.
Maybe there's a hijacked plane or terrorist threat and negotiations are taking place. They put the drone excuse out as they thought it would over quickly and can't retract it now it's dragging on.
Hope it's not but I'm struggling to believe that they can't sort this - Gatwick have said nobody should come to the airport for the foreseeable future including tomorrow....
A thicker plot than a drone methinks....
 
Imurg said:
I really do wonder if there's more to this than meets the eye.
Maybe there's a hijacked plane or terrorist threat and negotiations are taking place. They put the drone excuse out as they thought it would over quickly and can't retract it now it's dragging on.
Hope it's not but I'm struggling to believe that they can't sort this - Gatwick have said nobody should come to the airport for the foreseeable future including tomorrow....
A thicker plot than a drone methinks....
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A full airport and Gatwick telling people to stay away as no planes are moving. Surley if the airport is at more than capacity and nothing's flying they don't want even more people there.

If there had been a more sinister event the QRF would have rocked up and I doubt anyone would miss seeing them.
 
Old Skier said:
A full airport and Gatwick telling people to stay away as no planes are moving. Surley if the airport is at more than capacity and nothing's flying they don't want even more people there.

If there had been a more sinister event the QRF would have rocked up and I doubt anyone would miss seeing them.
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Just a wandering mind as much as anything else.
I just find it hard to believe that Gatwick has been at a standstill for 24 hours. If these drones have power for 30 minutes that's a hell of a lot of take offs, landings and battery charging going on.. Gatwick big but it ain't that big.
And if it really is all down to a drone then, quite frankly, it's pathetic that they haven't sorted it in 24 hours
 
Do you really think the Army and police are going tell everyone about their technology and tactics: they are not in the education business!!!!
 
Imurg said:
Just a wandering mind as much as anything else.
I just find it hard to believe that Gatwick has been at a standstill for 24 hours. If these drones have power for 30 minutes that's a hell of a lot of take offs, landings and battery charging going on.. Gatwick big but it ain't that big.
And if it really is all down to a drone then, quite frankly, it's pathetic that they haven't sorted it in 24 hours
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Which is why I surmised it has to be the work of more than one person which is why it's proving hard to pin down but you'd thought the police and military (and other agencies now on the case) can't spot someone in the vicinity of the perimeter fence controlling this thing.
 
Imurg said:
Just a wandering mind as much as anything else.
I just find it hard to believe that Gatwick has been at a standstill for 24 hours. If these drones have power for 30 minutes that's a hell of a lot of take offs, landings and battery charging going on.. Gatwick big but it ain't that big.
And if it really is all down to a drone then, quite frankly, it's pathetic that they haven't sorted it in 24 hours
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My understanding from the reports I saw on the google box was that it was more than one drone.
 
drdel said:
Do you really think the Army and police are going tell everyone about their technology and tactics: they are not in the education business!!!!
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No chance but it's just a shame that they waited so long to call the army in, mind you most units closed down last week so they had to find someone before the duty rumour started saying that some bleep was going to get called out.
 
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