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Over 110,000 Passengers on 760 Flights Disrupted by Drones Flying Over One of the UK's Busiest Airports (bbc.com)

Gatwick's runway has been shut since Wednesday night, when two devices were seen flying over the perimeter fence. The airport said at about 12:00 GMT on Thursday a drone had been spotted "in the last hour" and the runway would not open "until it was safe to do so". From a report: About 110,000 passengers on 760 flights were due to fly on Thursday. Disruption could last "several days". Those due to travel have been told to check the status of their flight, while Easyjet told its passengers not to go to Gatwick if their flights have been cancelled. Sussex Police said it was not terror-related but a "deliberate act" of disruption, describing the drones as of "industrial specification". The shutdown started just after 21:00 GMT on Wednesday, when two drones were spotted flying "over the perimeter fence and into where the runway operates from". The runway briefly reopened at 03:01 but was closed again about 45 minutes later amid "a further sighting of drones".

8 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Brilliant attack! by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nobody gets injured, but you shut down the airport for fear of people being injured. If you use autonomous pre-programed GPS based drones, there isn't even necessarily a radio signal to trace back to the person who launched the drone, potentially from several miles away.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  2. Re:Forcing the hammer to drop by ocsibrm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My view of the average person combined with Occam's razor says this probably isn't a scheme by a nefarious group hellbent on destruction, and is more likely just some random asshole who thinks he's absolutely *hilarious*. You know, like those folks who shine lasers at airplanes.

  3. Oh bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You're missing two very crucial things. 1) Nothing in British law, nor in any western laws I'm aware of, allow civil entities to engage in radioelectronic combat, and their radiotelephony laws blatantly prohibit such attacks. 2) None of the hard kill approaches are legal, nor are they ethical over populated areas. 3) a fucking net over the airport? You're retarded.

    The real answer is to publicly hang the assholes who did this (unless they have brown skin, then deny it happened)

  4. Re:Forcing the hammer to drop by smooth+wombat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    if they can plant sleepers and train them as pilots and have them take over airplanes and fly them into things, they can probably manage a couple of drones ...

    If the master race can steal explosives, manufacture a 7,000 pound bomb and detonate it next to a building, they can probably manage a couple of drones.

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  5. Re:What radio frequency? by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So what radio frequency is used by the drone controllers? It would be simple to build a jamming transmitter that could disable the link between the pirate pilots and their drones. I know nothing about drones

    We know you don't, because you don't even know they use spread-spectrum radio these days, and in spectrum you can't jam without causing problems for other users.

    It might also be fun to build a directed EMP "weapon" that could be used to take them down when visually sighted.

    If you could build one of those, every military on the planet would love to talk to you.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  6. Re:Drone fighters by apoc.famine · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You might want to learn what shotguns are and how they work before putting stupid comments like this on the internet. Here's a hint: Check the effective range of a shotgun and then check how high these drones are flying, and consider how large the airport is.

    You'd have been less wrong if you'd said, "sounds like the Sussex Police force needs an AA battery".

    --
    Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
  7. Why false? by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "I was able to stop the Airport alone with my skills" probably gives the person a false sense of empowerment.

    In what way is that false? The effect is very real, and probably a lot more than was imagined when the people sent in the drones (though honestly I think it more likely the drones were jus there to take video for fun).

    Now that people know how easy it is to shut down an airport... well hang on folks, we are in for one rocky ride as the nutters seize on this as a way to use airports for political messaging.

    In the end they are just going to have to learn to keep airports running despite "sightings of drones".

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  8. Re:Defences, not regulations by Carewolf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Airports already have hunters to shoot and scare flocks of birds. Just let them hunt drones too.