Gatwick airport closed due drone reported in area

[With The Birds]

Latest on our news in NZ he now called the ""dronewolve"" pItty that's a cool name

Dronewolve with a PhD apparently, at least according to an industry expert quoted in the media “For example, if they have adapted a drone and put a 3G card to fly it through phone-waves rather than radio waves to avoid capture they would need a masters degree or a PhD.
“That’s the level they would have to be at to reconfigure the electronics and retune the radios then reintegrate everything into the drone.”

Or they could have used occusync waves instead of phone waves....

 

[African wildlife]

An update on the situation here in Sussex.

Gatwick airport is now finally open again this morning (Friday) - but for limited flights.

Yesterday, Thursday, 665 flights were cancelled or diverted, affecting 110,000 passengers. This figure doesn't include disruption of 10,000 passengers on Wednesday evening.

Today, there were 765 flights scheduled for Gatwick. A significant number of these have been cancelled or will be severely delayed.

The last confirmed sight of the drone was at 10pm last night. It (or they) are commercial drones, so therefore eliminate any Phantom or Mavic or similar.

The police and military are confident that technological measures are now in place. They are not revealing exact details.

Nobody has yet been arrested.

Inbound flights that were diverted landed as far away as Manchester (north of England). One reported case involved a £1,250 (US$1,585) taxi ride for three passengers to get to Sussex (south of England, south of London). The disruption caused should not be underestimated. By Christmas, it will likely have caused major disruption for at least 150,000 passengers if not more.

The reason behind this deliberate act is as yet unknown, but it almost certainly isn't just "naughty" behaviour. As someone commented above, one possibility is a disgruntled former employee or someone with a serious grudge against Gatwick. Its all psychology, even if the focus is on the technology. And, to repeat, it is a commercial size drone (or drones) being flown.

 

[African wildlife]

I'm adding the following points to my post above.

The wind here in Sussex today is noticeably stronger, which might be a factor. The perpetrator (or perpetrators) has (have) not been found, so there is a risk of renewed disruption.

Have no doubt that the UK authorities will be learning from this major incident - and sharing what they learn with their counterparts around the world. They will likely identify this threat as different from the usual irresponsible behaviour of those flying a more typical drone. That said, public opinion about drones in general has just become even more negative - with well over 100,000 people personally upset.

 

[landmannnn]

Dronewolve with a PhD apparently, at least according to an industry expert quoted in the media “For example, if they have adapted a drone and put a 3G card to fly it through phone-waves rather than radio waves to avoid capture they would need a masters degree or a PhD.
“That’s the level they would have to be at to reconfigure the electronics and retune the radios then reintegrate everything into the drone.”

Or they could have used occusync waves instead of phone waves....

Unlikely that the 3/4G network is being used. Firstly the phone reception in that area is particularly poor, secondly the network congestion at the airport makes 3/4G virtually unusable.

It seems to me that unless this guy is really clever or a complete loner that he will be found.

In the past he must have joined forums, bought drone parts online and posted videos. He most likely has been operating from a residential property, not least to charge batteries, people will surely have heard the props.

 

[With The Birds]

Unlikely that the 3/4G network is being used. Firstly the phone reception in that area is particularly poor, secondly the network congestion at the airport makes 3/4G virtually unusable.

You might have completely missed the point of my post- I found it entertaining that someone might have lept to the conclusion that the operator needed to be at PhD level- that and the special distinction between phone-waves and radio-waves....

 

[skymonkey]

If it is truly this hard to bring down what might terrorist around the world be thinking, or even copycat idiots. They need to bring this bird down ASAP!!

 

[landmannnn]

You might have completely missed the point of my post- I found it entertaining that someone might have lept to the conclusion that the operator needed to be at PhD level- that and the special distinction between phone-waves and radio-waves....

Yep, I got the irony!

Tricky things those phone-waves.

 

[African wildlife]

Chris Grayling, Transport Secretary (UK Government official) has said there had been around 40 sightings of what were thought to be a “small number of drones” while the airport was closed. “It certainly wasn’t a lot, it was the same small number of drones seen many times."

Landmannnn: The individual (or individuals) concerned might have been operating from a vehicle, not necessarily a local residential property. That's how I would have one it, if I wanted to maximise the chance of evading detection. There were at least 20 mobile police units looking for the guilty one(s) yesterday, before the army were pulled in. Alternatively, there are plenty of agricultural and light industrial properties all around Gatwick, within easy flying distance.

 

[African wildlife]

If anyone thinks there's a simple solution, military expertise excluded, here's the informed view:

Speaking this morning, Chris Woodroofe (CEO of Gatwick) said there is currently no commercially available equipment he could put in place to neutralise the threat.

“This is an unprecedented issue. This isn’t a Gatwick Airport issue. It’s not even a UK issue. It’s an international issue,” he added.

“What we need to be doing going forward is work with technology providers and with the Government to enhance our ability to address the risk posed by drones to airports,” said Woodroofe.

“We have been working with technology providers ourselves for the last 12 months but stood here today, there is no commercially available airport licensed proven technology that I could implement.”

 

[African wildlife]

An interesting photo showing anti-drone technology now/temporarily in place at Gatwick.

It's been confirmed that the disrupting drone flights were "highly targeted".

Rightly or wrongly, some government speculation is allegedly pointing the finger at either a lone wolf eco-warrior or a group of environmental campaigners. Anything is possible, but I'm not sure about that one. If GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) had picked up anything definite through their sophisticated monitoring/eavesdropping, an arrest or arrests would likely have quickly followed by now. Unfortunately, there are countless individuals in our modern world who are psychologically dysfunctional to a very worrying degree and such people displace their anger/frustration onto others. The frequent public shootings in schools, hospitals, etc in the US are a well-known example of this behaviour.

Looking ahead, there is the additional risk of copy-cat behaviour from others. Almost all UK newspapers have this drone story on their front pages. We're back to Andy Warhol's quote: "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes."

 

[With The Birds]

If anyone thinks there's a simple solution, military expertise excluded, here's the informed view:

Speaking this morning, Chris Woodroofe (CEO of Gatwick) said there is currently no commercially available equipment he could put in place to neutralise the threat.

“This is an unprecedented issue. This isn’t a Gatwick Airport issue. It’s not even a UK issue. It’s an international issue,” he added.

“What we need to be doing going forward is work with technology providers and with the Government to enhance our ability to address the risk posed by drones to airports,” said Woodroofe.

“We have been working with technology providers ourselves for the last 12 months but stood here today, there is no commercially available airport licensed proven technology that I could implement.”

Why might there be a need to exclude military expertise?

In any case there are commercial solutions available.

Dronecatcher.nl, Drone RF guns, ground launched nets, trained eagles etc.

The airport CEO is clearly saying there was no airport approved solution available, not that none exist.

 

[landmannnn]

Landmannnn: The individual (or individuals) concerned might have been operating from a vehicle, not necessarily a local residential property. That's how I would have one it, if I wanted to maximise the chance of evading detection. There were at least 20 mobile police units looking for the guilty one(s) yesterday, before the army were pulled in. Alternatively, there are plenty of agricultural and light industrial properties all around Gatwick, within easy flying distance.

You are possibly right, if this were preplanned then the most effective way of avoiding capture would be to fly the drone from car.
With an accomplice driving and just stopping to collect the drone from drop locations tracking would be very difficult.

 

[coco777]

I'm puzzled. Why has no police helicopter followed the drones from a safe distance using the thermal cameras ? We all know how hot the drone batteries get, surely they can spot it with their superb thermal cameras and track it to its landing point ? Iv'e seen them track criminals from miles away, the criminal doesn't even hear the helicopter. With all commercial aircraft grounded the sky would be clear and i would think any drone would stick out like a sore thumb on a super zoom thermal camera. All these coppers on the ground looking into the sky achieves nothing imo.

 

[landmannnn]

I'm puzzled. Why has no police helicopter followed the drones from a safe distance using the thermal cameras ? We all know how hot the drone batteries get, surely they can spot it with their superb thermal cameras and track it to its landing point ? Iv'e seen them track criminals from miles away, the criminal doesn't even hear the helicopter. With all commercial aircraft grounded the sky would be clear and i would think any drone would stick out like a sore thumb on a super zoom thermal camera. All these coppers on the ground looking into the sky achieves nothing imo.

There were 3 or 4 of those drafted in yesterday.

 

[coco777]

There were 3 or 4 of those drafted in yesterday.

Yes i know, that's why i am puzzled, with all those helicopters and their cameras, they failed to track any of these drones to their landing point. Once they track any of the drones and retrieve it they will have a box of evidence.

 

[GMack]

Lots of the story here: Latest news.

Guy has transversed the field 50 times, both day and night. Suspect drone is a Matrice variety, possibly a hacked system to thwart GPS geo-fencing.

Odd why the geo-fence at that south London airport is so small compared to USA ones. It touches the ends of the runway and small in diameter to the USA ones. The new USA ones extend further out at the ends of th erunways now and less to the sides last time I looked.

If it is the Matrice, that should be easy to find the owner given so few of them to hunt down.

 

[African wildlife]

You shouldn't be puzzled. Whereas the UK police helicopter units are not fools, it is reasonable to assume that the perpetrator(s) is (are) not either. This isn't some average hobbyist. It's a deliberate act of disruption, sustained for 25 hours, which must have involved both planning and stealth - and presumably a certain level of technological knowledge. The authorities are playing catch-up, not least because this is the first ever event of its type and magnitude.

155 flights have been cancelled today, with many more severely delayed. Some estimates of total passenger numbers affected suggest 350,000, based on projections that it will take several days to resume normal service - because airplanes are not all where they are supposed to be. Finding alternative flights is more than difficult than usual as the majority of flights at this very busy time of the year were already full or nearly so.

 

[African wildlife]

A press conference is currently in progress and apparently there are now "persons of interest" (plural).

 

[coco777]

You shouldn't be puzzled. Whereas the UK police helicopter units are not fools, it is reasonable to assume that the perpetrator(s) is (are) not either. This isn't some average hobbyist. It's a deliberate act of disruption, sustained for 25 hours, which must have involved both planning and stealth - and presumably a certain level of technological knowledge. The authorities are playing catch-up, not least because this is the first ever event of its type and magnitude.

155 flights have been cancelled today, with many more severely delayed. Some estimates of total passenger numbers affected suggest 350,000, based on projections that it will take several days to resume normal service - because airplanes are not all where they are supposed to be. Finding alternative flights is more than difficult than usual as the majority of flights at this very busy time of the year were already full or nearly so.

Sorry but you didn't address my question. Why didn't 4 helicopters equipped with super zoom, long range, high res, thermal imaging camera's, find/track/retrieve any of a multitude of drones sighted? They seem able to follow cars (admittedly bigger) going at much faster speeds, for prolonged periods, both day and night, so i just find it puzzling they couldn't do the same with a slower target that also gives off a significant thermal trace.

 

[Sfgiants24]

Latest on our news in NZ he now called the ""dronewolve"" pItty that's a cool name

Keep joking. “Pitty” you won’t have anywhere to fly in a few months.