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

Posted by msmash on Thursday December 20, 2018 @02:00AM from the how-about-that dept.

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".

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Re:Forcing the hammer to drop by cascadingstylesheet · 2018-12-20 02:25 · Score: 1, Troll

Sounds like someone trying to force the regulators hand. What better way to prompt regulation than fucking with the second largest airport in the UK at one of the busiest times of the year.
Could be.
Or could be the Peaceful Worldview That Must Not Be Named ... 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 ...