Gatwick, drones

I have the answer to all of Gatwick’s problems.-

I R O N M A N

Pictures emerging of the model of drone involved…

Grayling has reported that counter terrorism police are convinced that its not a terror act.

I guess if you were so inclined it couldn’t be too difficult to have a few dotted around the place set to fly on a timer or mobile phone call with a predefined mission and then fly off somewhere safe to be retrieved once done. Gov’t and Police are probably massively relieved its not terror related as its a huge pants down moment for them.

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

It could be a sign that a 2nd referendum is closer, those clinging to power are trying to make sure any proper brexies are not in the costa del brexit for Christmas :)

Grayling has reported that counter terrorism police are convinced that its not a terror act.

The big advantage the government has is that they get to decide what is a terror indecent and what isn’t. It’s always good to be able to foil the terror plots or do something grand. Being a bit stumped and confused means it’s defiantly not terror

Why don’t they fire the frozen turkeys at the drones??

I’m sorry if this is a dumb question but… Am I missing a reason why an Army sniper couldn’t be drafted in, in a ghilly suit, to take down the drone? .50 cal would sort it out PDQ

Whether terror or not isnt really the point though, whats more important is that it appears to have no fatal intent. So its a massive get out of jail card for the gov’t/police who are obviously unprepared as they seem unable to deal with it quickly. What if it had been a festival or other large crowd and each drone had a bomb attached.

Last night, 43 aircraft were diverted away from Gatwick.

Of those, 20 declared min fuel en route to their diversion fields. That means the aircraft is committed to that field and cannot make it anywhere else.

1 declared a may day for fuel shortage.

I have nothing but contempt for whoever has done this although that Theresa May gif tickled me.

I have nothing but contempt for whoever has done this

yeah agreed, pretty horrible for anyone affected

I’m sorry if this is a dumb question but… Am I missing a reason why an Army sniper couldn’t be drafted in, in a ghilly suit, to take down the drone? .50 cal would sort it out PDQ

If you miss what can it hit? Already been mentioned in the BBC and other sources. But feel free to tweet the idea to the airport ;)

Because.50 and .338 will go straight through the drone and travel another few km.

Well hence wondering about professionals, rather than some weirdo who happens to have a sniper rifle knocking about… After all, the army do have experience (we’re told) of hitting targets but not civilians in other parts of the world!

Maybe it’s people demonstrating just how vulnerable airports are to drones to make a point before someone does it for more nefarious reasons?

Bit like when people hack companies IT systems then send them a report?

Not saying it’s morally right, but it’s a theory?

If they were that critical then surely some of the larger ‘local’ airports could have beeen used? No ILS but , Lasham is huge , Dunsfold , I know for a fact they stuck a 747 down but had to strip it to get it out . Bournmouth , Soton, Shoreham , London City , Southend , Thruxton, Odiham, Blackbushe , Farnborough.
Then I dont know where they were diverted to, LUton, Stanstead, LHR , I would guess , but arent there minimum fuel levels required at Take off to allow for travel to destination , plus a percenatge more ?

We all assume someones piloting these drones

or maybe all the Alexas have linked up into a hive mind

they are testing us, this is how it starts

.

this is how it ends

So unless this has neen said allready… why have the military not go involved with tracking,spotting drones, dont they have some of the best drones and tech stuff. Surely they could see one from a long way off and see where it comes from etc

Singlettackmind, you make a good point about the diversion fields but out of all of that list they either can’t take the size of aircraft or close at night. Drone was reported at 9 and aircraft held until they no longer could and then diverted. I can’t remember the exact figures (Dan will) as it’s been a long time since I had the books open, but aircraft will load fuel for a hold and potential diversion but due to the volume of diversion requests and subsequent approval, sequencing and repositioning, most would have been holding for way longer than anticipated.

its a little embarrassing how many in this thread wonder about shooting the drone down, but interesting that the caliber increases with the page count

still the army are on site now, hopefully they brought manpads.

Another thought – the drones are not constantly circling. Could they just be popping up now and again, threatening flights if they move?
Might explain that a 2 min window to find something is rather difficult…?

<p class=”Tweet-text e-entry-title” dir=”ltr” lang=”en”>Clearly UFO’s.
They’ve asked the “take me to your leader” question and that’s got the Government stumped.</p>

<div class=”TweetInfo-like”>🤣👍🤡</div>

Another thought – the drones are not constantly circling. Could they just be popping up now and again, threatening flights if they move?
Might explain that a 2 min window to find something is rather difficult…?

This is exactly what they are doing.Only fleeting sightings hours apart. I guess the issue is that once you conclude its a deliberate act to screw you over rather that a knob with a new toy getting it wrong you can’t really rest easy until the pilot is found.

Who knows of course what communications have been happening and just not published to the great unwashed.

We, a small NGO working in Iraq, looked at anti drone systems a while back and they exist for protecting things like major events and secure areas as any sort of drone overflight is an issue.  At best it is just cameras, at worst they carry weaponry.  These are fairly standard systems and you start from basic wifi detection systems and add on cameras and eventually get up to countermeasures.  There was no way we were allowed countermeasures and in a built up area you can’t detect fast enough to get into cover so it wasn’t worth it

For Gatwick it’s surprising that they don’t have something already.  The tin foil hat in me suspects it’s someone deliberately seeing what can be done and how far they can go ie. not just a couple of folks with small drones.

Who knows of course what communications have been happening and just not published to the great unwashed.

This seems the case the longer it goes on.

Well to reverse the trend I’d go with a .17HMR rifle.
Supersonic round with high accuracy and flat trajectory up to about 120m but as the bullet itself is pretty damn small (about the same as 3 air rifle pellets) it might cause little damage when it came down…. Unless it was onto a baby robin or in an eye.
😉

I doubt they’ll shoot it though.

The problem is indeed where it comes down, especially if it is a big device and you have no idea what it is carrying

Samson radar on a T45 parked in Portsmouth would be able to ‘see’ a drone over Gatwick – but you’d need a truck-mounted CIWS or directed-energy weapon closer-by to finish it off.

I can just imagine the STW Militia turning up at Gatwick to help out with this one ;)

I had no idea how much payload a large commercial drone could carry, 20kgs!
No wonder people are now saying hang on a sec , what if there is a drone with RDX and ball bearings slung underneath? The time in flight is shortened hugely but that would make one hell of a bang Not being used at Gatwick , that is some bored knobber out to disrupt everyones elses xmas travel plans because he spent all his cash on a shitty drone and didnt have enough left over for plane tickets.

leffeboy

Subscriber

The problem is indeed where it comes down, especially if it is a big device and you have no idea what it is carrying

aaaah, that makes sense. The “we can’t try to shoot it down, we might hit someone” story just doesn’t wash. If you’re an expert firearms/ weapons team, your entire training is about hitting the thing you mean to hit, not anything else – including picking the right weapon/ calibre (“biggerer!!” :D) and not missing.

aaaah, that makes sense. The “we can’t try to shoot it down, we might hit someone” story just doesn’t wash. If you’re an expert firearms/ weapons team, your entire training is about hitting the thing you mean to hit, not anything else – including picking the right weapon/ calibre (“biggerer!!” :D) and not missing.

and hitting fast moving targets near the ground in a non military environment with heaps of very expensive hardware, fuel and many other things around along with civilians in both terminals and residential areas.

People are also trained to know when a job is outside of their skill set or safety parameters

Gatwick now telling people not to turn up for flights tomorrow. Blimey.

I wonder if it is some sort of blackmail type thing.  Would make the most sense really.  No random in their right mind would still be doing this

People are also trained to know when a job is outside of their skill set or safety parameters

Nah, you don’t need to do that! Just start a thread, “WWSTD” and follow the advice therein!

Just fire nets at it. Net guns are a thing, aren’t they?

Gatwick now telling people not to turn up for flights tomorrow. Blimey.

I think during the upheaval with the liquid scares years back Heathrow were cancelling every other days BA flights to try and get back on track. Once you let somebody get into the airport system you have to deal with them, this way they can save them being on the premises and being pissed off. Even if they start flying 6am tomorrow it will take time to get on top of things and get people, planes & crew in the right place to start fresh.

Quite happy to be taking the train to London this weekend rather than flying

I wonder if this is a ransom situation?

No drones brought down because either they hope to track the perpetrators via the drones and they want the perpetrators enough to leave the drones flying or because the airport has been told there is a hazard present on the drones that would become an issue if the drones were attacked – which could easily be a bluff as who could tell?

Puzzling is that the drones must be coming down for battery replacements unless they are industrial size in order to carry extra power packs?

Drones are not exactly quiet, so why is no one hearing the taking off and landing of them?

I am alarmed there seems to be no planning for a drone situation and that it took so long for the military to be openly present / called in. Still, they cant even stop them doing drops at prisons can they… despair.

aaaah, that makes sense. The “we can’t try to shoot it down, we might hit someone” story just doesn’t wash. If you’re an expert firearms/ weapons team, your entire training is about hitting the thing you mean to hit, not anything else – including picking the right weapon/ calibre (“biggerer!!” :D) and not missing

Mate, go over and post that on arrse – even they will say the same thing. It’s one thing hitting a walking person sized target from a kilometre away, it’s another ball game entirely hitting something that is can rapidly changing direction with six degrees of freedom.

If it wasn’t, we’d have snipers strapped to the sides of boats instead of CIWS.

No drones brought down because either they hope to track the perpetrators via the drones and they want the perpetrators enough to leave the drones flying or because the airport has been told there is a hazard present on the drones that would become an issue if the drones were attacked – which could easily be a bluff as who could tell?

Was discussing this with a AI programmer friend of mine, either it’s self charging or someone is being clever and dead dropping batteries at various locations, automating the landing and quickly changing the battery before leaving.

I’m going with climate change activists. Something like this is right up the street of the environmental direct action movement, although admittedly at the more extreme end. It’s essentially non-violent, although not without risk as has been pointed out with the fuel situation, causes mass disruption and economic loss, and strikes at the heart of the problem. It’s probably a bit over the top, but then again allowing the world to burn because we can’t be bothered to change our destructive lifestyles is pretty extreme too. Surprised it’s not been done before to be honest. I wonder which airport is next?