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If anyone is travelling to or from Gatwick today


PaulT
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-46623754

In the live reporting section there is a comment seemingly about the closure due to drones being ridiculous. On an aviation forum that I view the threat of drones is very real to the pilots who post there.
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There was a suggestion on BBC News a short while ago that the drones are a protest against air travel by people concerned about the environment.

Apparently commercially available legal drones contain software to inhibit them from flying into certain areas. This would have to be modified by specialists, or the drones "home made", to enable them to enter the airport space.

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Several things have come to mind about this.

Firstly why were the military not called in? Anyone else wondering?

What will happen to these people?

What is this classed as, because this is bordering on terrorism, isn't it? Isn't it the equivalent of a sort of attack as if these drones had not been spotted, then a plane could have been brought down.

And what if it is kids, why is the proper age of criminal responsibility not lower. 99.9% of kids know good from bad, they know and understand doing things that they shouldn't.
And could kids get hold a drone without a certain complicity of the parents, who, if it is kids, are also guilty??

And all those with their hols ruined, can they put a civil claim in against the perps, for full compensation??? I do hope that they can.

I am really angry about this. What with lasers being direct at planes in flight and drones, law to protect flights should be really really draconian.

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There are suggestions that some environmental group is involved who object to people flying round the world because it causes environmental damage. Remember that Gatwick is nearish to Brighton, the home of all nutters.

I would imagine that the SAS have quietly moved into position and are trying to find the little sods who are doing this. Which is very difficult indeed. If they do get them, I would suggest stringing them up and letting the delayed passengers throw hard objects at them.
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If the authorities can manage to find them AND time it exactly right, with luck they'll be able to keep the barstewards in custody over Christmas and hopefully eff up their Christmas in the same way they've done to hundreds and hundreds of innocent people.
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[quote user="Hoddy"]I can't understand why there are no measures to prevent this. I live near a less important airport but it has often occurred to me that it would easy to disrupt it with a drone. Lots of people have them these days.[/quote]

Maybe you should have mentioned it, no-one responsible seems to have thought it would happen - except the people with the drone of course...........

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There are measures to prevent this. Unfortunately they're flawed. You know, a bit like the measures to stop nutters with guns walking into public places and shooting dozens of people, or nutters with trucks diving into crowds at big events. You can put measures in place, but there will sadly always be some moron with an agenda who enjoys circumventing those measures for their own reasons.
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Rationally defined by whom, dickdick. Mao, Lenin, Hilter were all rational by their lights.

The planet could never have started from there. It has 10 times too many people and is going towards the destruction of the unchallenged and destructive species which is destroying it. After that, in a very short time, like in a million or so years a new species will emerge, perhaps more integrated. But it might not, so the whole game starts again.
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[quote user="woolybanana"]Rationally defined by whom, dickdick. Mao, Lenin, Hilter were all rational by their lights.

The planet could never have started from there. It has 10 times too many people and is going towards the destruction of the unchallenged and destructive species which is destroying it. After that, in a very short time, like in a million or so years a new species will emerge, perhaps more integrated. But it might not, so the whole game starts again.[/quote]

Actually, it's all happened before. It's just that no-one has yet dug deep enough or long enough to find the tenuous remnants in the dust.

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[quote user="Hoddy"]I can't understand why there are no measures to prevent this. I live near a less important airport but it has often occurred to me that it would easy to disrupt it with a drone. Lots of people have them these days.[/quote]

On another forum that I frequent:

Originally Posted by someone in the USA

'Here in the States some redneck with a shotgun would have take care of those pesky drones by now..'

Reply by someone in the UK

'Easier said than done. The police have pitched up with 5.65 mm's Snipers, shot**** a lot more. Airborne targets have no backstop and a round can go a long way and unlike in some parts of the world we are careful about where we discharge firearms. As a clay pigeon shooter myself my first thought was to shoot it down with a few 32 gram number 6 's but what we have is a well organised and deliberate 'attack' on a civilian installation. I'd rather they track the drones back to the operators than just shoot 'em down'.

Quote:

Originally Posted by someone in the UK

Suspect it would be simple to jam the comm using a directional antenna. Would also point to the source.

Reply by same person in the UK

'Not so simple, 1 - the law prevents jamming radio signals so Ofcomm would get its piss in a froth ( although no one I know would care in the circumstances ) 2 - Drones these days do not need a remote control to keep them airborne. 3 - the new radio controls operate on 2.4 Ghz are encrypted and frequency agile. Jamming them is NOT trivial.

besides, drones can be autonomous, running to a pre programmed mission and able to take off, fly the mission and return to a point and land simply with a single button press. ( My guess is that's how these blokes are doing it. take off from one point, fly a disruptive pattern over Gatwick and then hightail it to a second position to be collected for a battery change and repeat. The crew at either end has very little chance of being caught as it could be a public car park, open land even a moving flatbed vehicle!'

So seems they can be quite sophisticated....presumably to stop them being 'nicked'.

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