Gatwick, drones

Nazi drones? My god, what will they think of next?

So what new laws have they rushed through parliament today whilst we have all been looking at Gatwick?

I know… #cynic

Drone killer (decals on side show how many)

No deal preparations ramped up and now this. Surely not a coincidence?

The technology to deal with rogue drones has been around for a long time – it is called a 12 gauge shotgun.

Even in the hands of a half-cut stockbroker wearing tweed they can bring down game birds – so a drone shouldn’t be a problem.

Drones can climb to height and out of the effective range of bird shot a bit faster than grouse….so unless many people have a Punt Gun lying around I think they’d be fairly useless.

I’ve still got my money on those not happy about the emergency runway being used to increase capacity. If it were someone with the aim of causing maximum disruption to the country they’d of targeted Heathrow. I think it’s aimed directly at the airport.

BBC News was showing a laser technology designed to overheat a done’s battery causing it to ignite, but apparently it’s some pretty advanced technology; they were also suggesting that the Gatwick drones might be flying pre-programmed routes to avoid the possibility of having their radio control jammed. I’m pretty sure that I saw something way back about birds of prey being trained to bring down small drones.

Maybe Heathrow is already ‘protected’ so they picked #2. Of course they could’ve chosen Manchester but seeing as the government and national airline don’t seem to GAFF about Manchester then it has been overlooked. They could’ve picked Leeds Bradford too but it’s too windy to fly owt up there.

BBC News was showing a laser technology designed to overheat a done’s battery causing it to ignite, but apparently it’s some pretty advanced technology; they were also suggesting that the Gatwick drones might be flying pre-programmed routes to avoid the possibility of having their radio control jammed. I’m pretty sure that I saw something way back about birds of prey being trained to bring down small drones.

Still open to jamming unless they are using an inertial navigation system, which correct me if I’m wrong – is relatively rare outside of the military or industrial spec drones.

Still open to jamming

Problem comes with what else you jam with that signal really.

I don’t want to seem too jivehoneyjive about this, but in an era when every occurrence in the world is all over social media in seconds, has anyone seen any footage of any drones anywhere near Gatwick posted anywhere?

Lots of “reports of” drone sightings but a surprising lack of evidence of any actual drone sightings.

Makes you think…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_2.4_GHz_radio_use

I don’t want to seem too jivehoneyjive about this, but in an era when every occurrence in the world is all over social media in seconds, has anyone seen any footage of any drones anywhere near Gatwick posted anywhere?

They’re the modern Yeti/Bigfoot/big cat/ghosts

I don’t want to seem too jivehoneyjive about this, but in an era when every occurrence in the world is all over social media in seconds, has anyone seen any footage of any drones anywhere near Gatwick posted anywhere?
Lots of “reports of” drone sightings but a surprising lack of evidence of any actual drone sightings.
Makes you think…

There is video footage of it.

Not so, lots of folk are killed by falling bullets as people celebrate by shooting into the air.

It was quite unnerving to step off the train into a crowd of people doing just that at the end of the 1983 Tunisian bread riots as a 12 year old 🙂

Still open to jamming unless they are using an inertial navigation system, which correct me if I’m wrong – is relatively rare outside of the military or industrial spec drones.

I don’t think it’s particularly difficult to program in waypoints in a circuit in any reasonably fancy drone. They effectively fly autonomously anyway, the ‘pilot’ is actually only telling the flight computer what he’s like the drone to do, and the computer does all the actual piloting. If signal is lost they almost all ‘return to home’; it would be simple to change that to ‘if signal lost; circuit around waypoints’. What’s disappointing/impressive is that with the fairly limited battery life, the authorities haven’t managed to find a base of operation yet; this strikes me as organised and nefarious, rather than a dickhead ‘hobbyist’ (although actually that’s unfair to hobbyists, who are usually a fairly responsible bunch).

Surely if its flying a pre programmed route then the down wash from a copter will throw it in the ground really quickly? Or get the police in a chopper and shotgun it from side on . Bird shot falling from the sky is pretty harmles , like hailstones as thay have little mass.
Must be a way to use a jammer along the lines of a RDF to find the transmit point , unless drone freqs are used for other things.( unless it will fly a pre prog route with zero input )
Use another drone to hit the rogue drone out the sky? They race drones so the PS generation must be able to rock up in short order annd play catch me if you can , then offer rewards for smashed to bits naughty drones . This travel disruption is costing someone many thousands of ££ so a £500 per naughty drone bounty seems good value

So do we reckon

Putin?

Crazy kids, screwing around?

Islamists?

Yellow vest morons?

Climate change protestors?

Twitter now reporting that BA’s systems have gone down at Heathrow – IT failure.

If someone does this on the day we no deal Brexit, we are screwed.

Jesus, just how vulnerable is our national infrastructure?

Morons almost certainly, axe to grind against Gatwick, sounds likely, I assume with the number of key words this thread now contains the security services are kicking themselves they have not thought of all these drone stopping techniques….

As for BA at Heathrow and IT, massive number of flight cancellations and re routes going on at the moment, lots of people will be getting sent through LHR instead, BA actually sell a lot of connecting flight options (well try and sell) of into LHR out of LGW so every chance it could be the extra load causing them the problems or something getting into a nasty loop on it’s own rather than something sinister

Jesus, just how vulnerable is our national infrastructure?

Probably on par with most countries, there is some interesting reading about the US automated voting booths and that tech, along with some of the hacking attempts on that.

Out of interest, don’t they test plane engines by firing frozen turkeys at them, so surely a drone would cause little damage to the engine?

Also trying to aim a drone at plane can’t be easy? How quick are drones

Some lovely photos of Gatwick Airport I took earlier today. pic.twitter.com/sHMZQNOBbu

— Friz Frizzle (@FrizFrizzle) December 20, 2018

Just gone past the runway on the train. No sign of drones, lasers, shotgun totting toffs, eagles or Ruskies.

Out of interest, don’t they test plane engines by firing frozen turkeys at them, so surely a drone would cause little damage to the engine?
Also trying to aim a drone at plane can’t be easy? How quick are drones

A mate of mine in the US does this to F-35 engines!

So do we reckon

Putin?

Crazy kids, screwing around?

Islamists?

Yellow vest morons?

Climate change protestors?

This is fishier than that fermented swedish canned fish imho

In order…
Climate change protestors (or those that got arrested airside recently under a law that the media mis-represented as a terrorism law, but isn’t)
Domestic authorities making evidence to speed up authoritarian laws
Russkies
Norks

It ain’t someone doing it for a laugh or wicked footage for their sick edit

1:45 for drone vs wing

Anyhow, you don’t need to actually be trying to hit an aircraft. Just pissing around inside the perimeter achieves all their needs.

Heh, flighttracker24 shows a few ground vehicles at Gatwick – one “leader7” has done a complete perimeter check.

Twitter now reporting that BA’s systems have gone down at Heathrow – IT failure.

Yip. I’m in the T5 lounge and the airport is carnage. Huge delays on every flight. Computers down.

Huge delays on every flight. Computers down.

Putin opened his Christmas presents early?

BoardinBob

Yip. I’m in the T5 lounge and the airport is carnage. Huge delays on every flight. Computers down.

Dude, think you need to change your username 🙁

Out of interest, don’t they test plane engines by firing frozen turkeys at them

Was covered back on page 1. They’re not frozen. That’d just smash the fan and all the compressor stages to ****.

Clearly UFO’s.
They’ve asked the “take me to your leader” question and that’s got the Government stumped.

— 10ep (@10ep1) December 20, 2018

Very serious operators indeed imo.
Sincerely hope the Heathrow issues are a coincidence.

Dude, think you need to change your username 🙁

😂

At least an hours delay on 99% of flights😭

Jesus, just how vulnerable is our national infrastructure?

Considering how long people have been talking about the potential danger to aircraft from drones and inconsiderate hobbyists (let alone well organised/determined terrorists) it’s amazing just how unprepared and vulnerable a major national airport is (similarly lots of talk and hot air around preventing drone flown contraband entering prisons but very little actually done about it).

for the list of likely suspects, is it too far fetched to suggest Gatwick or such like being “held to ransom” — ?

Seems someone has been working on a set of solutions for a while.
Take a look at ECS (@ECS31): https://twitter.com/ECS31?s=09

Approaching Christmas. Airport held to ransom…

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61qnU8LMErL._SY445_.jpg