Gatwick airport closed due drone reported in area
- Thread starter thousandyard
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I foresee more restrictions in the near future. Thank you idiot with a drone. Hope you post your amazing footage on youtube and get visited by the police.
I guess that two drones sort of meets the minimum requirement for an organized protest.
The UK's second-busiest airport. Inbound flights diverted and outward flights cancelled. Thousands of people facing serious disruption. It's the first news story on the morning TV news - not helped by the fact the airport has been closed for a second time 45 minutes after it reopened. Yes, you've got it - more drones reported.
As at 8.00am (Thursday), there is still at least one drone above the airfield according to the head of Gatwick. There are 20+ police officers around the Gatwick airport area looking for the drone pilot. There is no doubt that this is a deliberate act to cause on-going disruption which has now lasted 11 hours.
Gatwick's CEO says that 10,000 passengers were disrupted last night - so excluding the huge disruption of passengers this morning. That was 2,000 passengers unable to fly out of Gatwick, 6,000 passengers up in the air who were redirected to other airports, and 2,000 passengers who were unable to leave a country inbound for the UK. Plus all the friends and relatives waiting at Gatwick to meet passengers who landed in a different part of the UK.
As someone who frequently does long-haul flights, the last thing you need is a major disruption.
And then there's the cost, which is huge, as Thousandyard has just said above.
As someone who frequently does long-haul flights, the last thing you need is a major disruption.
And then there's the cost, which is huge, as Thousandyard has just said above.
It's now almost midday and Gatwick is still at a complete standstill. The Christmas getaway is one of the busiest times of the year, with schools having just broken up yesterday.
Thank goodness terrorists are usually unimaginative and somewhat restricted with regards to brain activity, otherwise they could frequently bring a country's aviation to a halt for the price of a few drones.
Thank goodness terrorists are usually unimaginative and somewhat restricted with regards to brain activity, otherwise they could frequently bring a country's aviation to a halt for the price of a few drones.
It now says it is all deliberate why the **** would someone do this it's crazy
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Can I ask if these “drones” are DJI manufactured, or any other well known brand ? If so, where is the Geo fencing around one of the busiest airports? Is the a protest or just morons playing up. Giving us all a bad name. The CAA isn’t going to like this.
There are hundreds of manufacturers and thousandsof home made drones. If they have RTH, RAF can just jam the signal and force RTH. Then is a simple follow the yellow brick road to the pilot.
Rather than stopping flights why not use a shot-gun to bring them down?
I’m sorry but if it was that easy they would of done it hours ago. [emoji85]
Didn't this happen last year or early this year as well? I remember hearing about this before. It looks really bad that this has occurred for so long. A few minutes I could understand but hours and hours?
Maybe the authorities need to see the video of the helicopter rotorwash dropping the drone in the lake.
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