Some really smart people around today


https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/ ... 22111.html

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/n ... ts-2347214

Diversions to Liverpool, Manchester, East Midlands and Stansted. I think one even went to LHR.

Norwegian JFK - LGW just landed in Liverpool.

uta999 wrote:

Diversions to Liverpool, Manchester, East Midlands and Stansted. I think one even went to LHR.

Norwegian JFK - LGW just landed in Liverpool.

At least one went to AMS.

https://twitter.com/LivvyABarnes/status ... 5765053442

My god that is a lot of diversions, dozens of them all over the place

They seem to be diverting all over the place tonight, quite a few gone to CDG as well. Must cause an absolute nightmare for the schedulers tomorrow with so many aircraft and crews out of position for tomorrow mornings flights.

BA2272 JFK - LGW cancelled.

Seriously?

A3801000 wrote:

BA2272 JFK - LGW cancelled.

Seriously?

It's still closed, inbound flights are straight up diverting mid flight. Why it's still closed when the news broke 2 hours ago I can not tell you.

Aren't there any skeet or trap shooters left in merry ole England? That's what they get for gun control!

Armodeen wrote:

A3801000 wrote:

BA2272 JFK - LGW cancelled.

Seriously?

It's still closed, inbound flights are straight up diverting mid flight. Why it's still closed when the news broke 2 hours ago I can not tell you.

Maybe they are still around or they are investigating? I doubt they are keeping a major airport closed for no reason.

The culprits should be thrown into a GE90. Unreal how stupid people can be.

Couple of Easyjets gone to Cardiff.

One of the LGW Leader vehicles has been sweeping every runway, taxiway, ramp and access road, across the entire field.

Flightradar24/ground vehicles

Now it is getting weird. Some unverified reports of more drones taking of. As in a orchestrated disruption.
No drone battery keeps that long anyway.
Weird.

johns624 wrote:

Aren't there any skeet or trap shooters left in merry ole England? That's what they get for gun control!

Aye, its rubbish. A lot less school shootings though.

I think there might be more to this story than 2 drones.....

Reports off drones still above Gatwick. Airport still closed.

Video of one of the drones: https://twitter.com/edwilde/status/1075555700452061184

Please be aware the above video is not the drone. It is however the police helicopter searching the area. Which it has been for the last 4 hours.

LTN12 wrote:

Please be aware the above video is not the drone. It is however the police helicopter searching the area. Which it has been for the last 4 hours.

I can't judge. The guy who filmed it said this :"It didn’t move like a police helicopter, that was what I thought at first but the movement was really smooth and slow"

Because it’s hovering and moving slowly at low altitude to identify these drones. I live a stones throw from LGW and have been watching the Heli out my window

LTN12 wrote:

Because it’s hovering and moving slowly at low altitude to identify these drones. I live a stones throw from LGW and have been watching the Heli out my window

Have you been able to see any other interesting or noteworthy activity?

LTN12 wrote:

Because it’s hovering and moving slowly at low altitude to identify these drones. I live a stones throw from LGW and have been watching the Heli out my window

Do you own any drones?

Nope, other than the Police Heli is still over the airport. And it’s raining sideways...

LTN12 wrote:

Because it’s hovering and moving slowly at low altitude to identify these drones. I live a stones throw from LGW and have been watching the Heli out my window

Cool. Guy on Twitter says this:

"I don't work for the airlines but I litreally work opposite in a tall enough building to see the airfield. These drones at Gatwick are not the little silly toy ones. They are the real deal top of the range models. We have been watching them from the top windows and roof of the building. Pretty sure we've seen 7 different drones from our rooftop'

Believable?

Anyone need a new alternative for clay pigeon shooting?

I presume this would mean the end for drones?

Sad to say they need to be licensed. Hopefully the protesters will be jailed for endangering lives needlessly like that.

Still closed. BY4315 PFA - LGW diverted to LPL right now. All airports closer are full or closed?

Unconfirmed report of the possibility of another drone sighted around 02:30 by railway staff working on the platforms of Gatwick Station.

After 6 hours LGW just re-opened at 3 am local time.

Antarius wrote:

Armodeen wrote:

A3801000 wrote:

BA2272 JFK - LGW cancelled.

Seriously?

It's still closed, inbound flights are straight up diverting mid flight. Why it's still closed when the news broke 2 hours ago I can not tell you.

Maybe they are still around or they are investigating? I doubt they are keeping a major airport closed for no reason.

The culprits should be thrown into a GE90. Unreal how stupid people can be.

Those culprits doesn’t deserve a GE90. They can just sell themselves to repay all passengers and airlines and airports every cent of loss they cost.
Update: Norwegian EZE-LGW running late.

Closed again:

EGKK( Gatwick)
Airfield unavailable due to drones in the area till 0800 UTC.
High delays

Could someone train one or more falcons to snag those drones in mid-air?

SkyVoice wrote:

Could someone train one or more falcons to snag those drones in mid-air?

Dutch police tried:

https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/12/167 ... gue-drones

'The eagles wouldn’t always do what they were trained to do, and the police also doubted if the birds would perform well outside of their controlled training environment.'

I just can't believe that LGW is still closed, newest info is till 8 am UTC, this is 11 hours.

I'm curious how do they detect these drones? Annonymous reporting?

How close and high are these drones flying?

There is a big difference to flying directly in the flight path and some kid 3km from the airport flying in his backyard and never going above tree height.

I fly drones and 99% of my drone flying is below 20m altitude. I use it for fairly close up photography but from an elevated perspective. I dont even look to see if the area is restricted because I see no risk.

Its time to charge anyone caught using a done within 5km of an airport to be charged with recklessly endangering an aircraft or what ever offence each country has, which is normally used if someone was to run at the cockpit or claim to have a bomb. Carries a 15 year maximum in most Australian states.

As a pilot dones are my biggest concern, not birds, not terrorists, not engine failures.

Normal drone batteries last maybe 20 minutes, hydrogen drones maybe 4 hours. Somebody went to great length to do this.

If this is a protest, strange nobody is taking credit.. The whole point is to get your name out while there's the most publicity possible so during the morning news shows would be it.

Probably a case of fire cover. Most regional airports only have cover for aircraft up to a 737 (or 787) because that's all they normally get - most can increase for larger aircraft but need notice to roster more firefighters.

log0008 wrote:

Its time to charge anyone caught using a done within 5km of an airport to be charged with recklessly endangering an aircraft

So anyone living near an airport should be inconvenienced just because airlines and airport operators are lazy cheapskates? Flying drones isn't a right, but neither is flying an airliner or running an airport.

Drones can be detected by thermal imaging and millimetric radar. If Gatwick had those systems installed then they wouldn't have had a police helicopter blocking the airspace on a fruitless search for phantom drones.

So why doesn't Gatwick have drone detection systems? Because that costs money, and it's cheaper to cajole politicians into kneejerk legislation instead.

As a reminder:

NATS Gatwick drone incident

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0rfFFZ332k

Given the most recent sighting was 7am UTC - it sounds like organised disruption. Kids would have legged it when it became obvious the police were looking for them.

log0008 wrote:

Its time to charge anyone caught using a done within 5km of an airport to be charged with recklessly endangering an aircraft or what ever offence each country has, which is normally used if someone was to run at the cockpit or claim to have a bomb. Carries a 15 year maximum in most Australian states.

As a pilot dones are my biggest concern, not birds, not terrorists, not engine failures.

So a kid 4.8km from an airport who flew a drone 20 metres in the air should get 15 years jail?

If there was a collision the pilot in the manned aircraft would be the only one going to jail. Flying a Cessna 20 metres above the ground in a residential area is highly dangerous. The Cessna could easily hit a tree or power lines at that altitude.

Latest per LGW Chief Operating Officer on tv is that airport will remain closed until the drone is brought down. Being classed as a deliberate act of sabotage.

I am booked JER to LGW today to connect to Krakov for Christmas from LHR tomorrow. And tonight's ferry Jersey to Portsmouth is delayed 7 hours due to wind waves and tides!!

JerseyFlyer wrote:

Latest per LGW Chief Operating Officer on tv is that airport will remain closed until the drone is brought down. Being classed as a deliberate act of sabotage.

Now at daylight it should be easy to find any drones.

Were there ever real drones flying or is this only a type of mass hysteria?

Which drone can fly for such a long time?

Heinkel wrote:

JerseyFlyer wrote:

Latest per LGW Chief Operating Officer on tv is that airport will remain closed until the drone is brought down. Being classed as a deliberate act of sabotage.

Now at daylight it should be easy to find any drones.

Were there ever real drones flying or is this only a type of mass hysteria?

Which drone can fly for such a long time?

There is a video of the drone so it was real.

johns624 wrote:

Aren't there any skeet or trap shooters left in merry ole England? That's what they get for gun control!

Sorry. It is tea time here.

Still no aircraft movements around LGW on FR24, only ground vehicles. Also, no planes are lined up for landing, so LGW must still be closed. A family member is flying out this afternoon with D8, and at first the flight was delayed 2:50 hours, but then all of a sudden on time, only to be delayed an hour again.

Regarding eliminating drones, there has been no need for that in the past since those incidents have been (as far as I know) "only" stupid kids trying to record a really cool video once or twice. This seems (?) like a deliberate act to stop operations at LGW. If that is the case, or drone incidents in the future show the same length in their disruption of operations, I'm quite certain measures will be taken to bring them down. Skeet shooters may not be the best countermeasure though as bullets tend to fall to the ground if they miss their target and may cause fatalities. If the drone threat becomes too disruptive, other, more precise, methods will be developed. How about a drone-seeking drone with the ability to send out a local EMP pulse or simply jam known frequency bands of drone remotes? Then again, an advanced drone will return home if radio contact is lost, so EMP might be the best way.

/Fredrik


...or just follow it to the drone operator!

Police dogs and armed response on scene.

FredrikHAD wrote:

Still no aircraft movements around LGW on FR24, only ground vehicles. Also, no planes are lined up for landing, so LGW must still be closed. A family member is flying out this afternoon with D8, and at first the flight was delayed 2:50 hours, but then all of a sudden on time, only to be delayed an hour again.

Regarding eliminating drones, there has been no need for that in the past since those incidents have been (as far as I know) "only" stupid kids trying to record a really cool video once or twice. This seems (?) like a deliberate act to stop operations at LGW. If that is the case, or drone incidents in the future show the same length in their disruption of operations, I'm quite certain measures will be taken to bring them down. Skeet shooters may not be the best countermeasure though as bullets tend to fall to the ground if they miss their target and may cause fatalities. If the drone threat becomes too disruptive, other, more precise, methods will be developed. How about a drone-seeking drone with the ability to send out a local EMP pulse or simply jam known frequency bands of drone remotes? Then again, an advanced drone will return home if radio contact is lost, so EMP might be the best way.

/Fredrik

Wouldn't the EMP take out the drone-seeking drone too ?

User001 wrote:

There is a video of the drone so it was real.

Have you looked at the video?

On the video you can see a moving light in the far distance, where a police helicopter operates. That is evidence for a drone????

Until now there is no evidence, that there really has been a drone or more.

If you have any evidence. please let me know. And don't mention the video with the light in the dark.