4 ms·

I genuinely don't understand how it can be a 24+ hour operation just to take out a drone. Don't jets regularly get scrambled in response to less disruptive int

I genuinely don't understand how it can be a 24+ hour operation just to take out a drone. Don't jets regularly get scrambled in response to less disruptive intrusions? Doesn't the battery die at some point? Can't they follow it to where it lands and take it out of commission? Couldn't someone have woven a giant net by now?

matthewmacleod 8y ago
As I understand it, the drone(s) have been vanishing then reappearing at various points throughout the day. While it seems quite easy to deal with the issue at first glance, I can see why this would be difficult to deal with. A drone strike at takeoff could be pretty catastrophic, so there is rightly an attitude of erring on the side of safety; flights are unlikely to resume until the authorities are fairly certain the drone is gone. But they are pretty small, so it doesn’t seem like it would be terribly easy to track them. The operator may be using multiple drones, and could potentially be quite far away from Gatwick - I’m no drone expert, but I understand 6-7km range with a 30min flight time is feasible. That’s quite a wide area to search. Honestly I’m surprised that we haven’t seen this happen before now; it seems like such an easy attack. I would guess that we might even see a rash of copycat attacks.
- adamiscool8 8y ago
  I totally understand why they'd have to err towards caution on the initial appearance, but the drones aren't teleporting away when they vanish. The combined power of the authorities can't follow a drone for 30 minutes and capture it? Something just seems off.
  - shard972 8y ago
    The brits are not sending their best apparently.
  - alasdair_ 8y ago
    A few autonomous gps-guided drones are all that is needed. No one would need to come back to get them. $200 could shut down an airport for hours
- jessriedel 8y ago
  Bird are able to bring down commercial airliners, and in the US there are 14,000 bird strikes per year reported to the FAA. Despite some modestly effective devices used to discourage birds from flying near airports, birds still regularly encroach on airport air space. Yet somehow, airports manage to keep operating. The only way the hyper caution can be justified is by the chance that the drone operators would purposefully strike an aircraft.
  - fipple 8y ago
    But isn’t a pretty reasonable assumption that a drone flying around an airport in a furtive manner, in clear contravention of law, would try to purposefully strike an aircraft? Much more so than a bird, which would have nothing to gain and everything to lose?
  - sterlind 8y ago
    Birds rarely carry explosives. Do these drones? No way to tell without bagging one. Big booms come in small packages; I think the caution is warranted. It just shouldn't take so long. How about this: signal triangulation stations at each large airport and a directional signal jammer? What do you need to safely down a drone in a highly-controlled environment?
    - M2Ys4U 8y ago
      Even if it's not carrying explosives it probably has a LiPo battery on board which wouldn't be a nice thing to run through a jet engine...
Diggsey 8y ago
What is a jet supposed to do against a drone? Best option would be to send up another drone and fly into it / follow it if it tries to escape. I'm sure the police or army must have their own drones for other purposes which would be usable, and if not, its inconceivable that it wouldn't be possible to get hold of a drone in a few hours. Currently they seem to be assuming someone is actively flying it... That might be the case, but it could equally well be flying by GPS and controlled from anywhere in the world over a mobile data connection, in which case the police are wasting their time.
- adamiscool8 8y ago
  I would think they could at least tail it until the battery dies? Maybe they've already done so and know more than they're letting on, but publicly this response seems terribly managed.
  - hacoo 8y ago
    A jet would not be able to fly slow enough, or turn tightly enough, to track a drone. A helicopter might be able to do it, but even then, getting rid of the drone safely would be very difficult...
- honestoHeminway 8y ago
  Imagine a terrorist cell, which consists of just some task-rabbits, receiving parcells and plugging parcels into the "maschine", which charges drones, and releases them according to some mysterious connection. There is nobody on site, to actually commit the acts. Gig economy terrorism, now that has to scale.

matthewmacleod 8y ago

As I understand it, the drone(s) have been vanishing then reappearing at various points throughout the day. While it seems quite easy to deal with the issue at first glance, I can see why this would be difficult to deal with. A drone strike at takeoff could be pretty catastrophic, so there is rightly an attitude of erring on the side of safety; flights are unlikely to resume until the authorities are fairly certain the drone is gone. But they are pretty small, so it doesn’t seem like it would be terribly easy to track them. The operator may be using multiple drones, and could potentially be quite far away from Gatwick - I’m no drone expert, but I understand 6-7km range with a 30min flight time is feasible. That’s quite a wide area to search. Honestly I’m surprised that we haven’t seen this happen before now; it seems like such an easy attack. I would guess that we might even see a rash of copycat attacks.

adamiscool8 8y ago
I totally understand why they'd have to err towards caution on the initial appearance, but the drones aren't teleporting away when they vanish. The combined power of the authorities can't follow a drone for 30 minutes and capture it? Something just seems off.
- shard972 8y ago
  The brits are not sending their best apparently.
- alasdair_ 8y ago
  A few autonomous gps-guided drones are all that is needed. No one would need to come back to get them. $200 could shut down an airport for hours
jessriedel 8y ago
Bird are able to bring down commercial airliners, and in the US there are 14,000 bird strikes per year reported to the FAA. Despite some modestly effective devices used to discourage birds from flying near airports, birds still regularly encroach on airport air space. Yet somehow, airports manage to keep operating. The only way the hyper caution can be justified is by the chance that the drone operators would purposefully strike an aircraft.
- fipple 8y ago
  But isn’t a pretty reasonable assumption that a drone flying around an airport in a furtive manner, in clear contravention of law, would try to purposefully strike an aircraft? Much more so than a bird, which would have nothing to gain and everything to lose?
- sterlind 8y ago
  Birds rarely carry explosives. Do these drones? No way to tell without bagging one. Big booms come in small packages; I think the caution is warranted. It just shouldn't take so long. How about this: signal triangulation stations at each large airport and a directional signal jammer? What do you need to safely down a drone in a highly-controlled environment?
  - M2Ys4U 8y ago
    Even if it's not carrying explosives it probably has a LiPo battery on board which wouldn't be a nice thing to run through a jet engine...

Diggsey 8y ago

What is a jet supposed to do against a drone? Best option would be to send up another drone and fly into it / follow it if it tries to escape. I'm sure the police or army must have their own drones for other purposes which would be usable, and if not, its inconceivable that it wouldn't be possible to get hold of a drone in a few hours. Currently they seem to be assuming someone is actively flying it... That might be the case, but it could equally well be flying by GPS and controlled from anywhere in the world over a mobile data connection, in which case the police are wasting their time.

adamiscool8 8y ago
I would think they could at least tail it until the battery dies? Maybe they've already done so and know more than they're letting on, but publicly this response seems terribly managed.
- hacoo 8y ago
  A jet would not be able to fly slow enough, or turn tightly enough, to track a drone. A helicopter might be able to do it, but even then, getting rid of the drone safely would be very difficult...
honestoHeminway 8y ago
Imagine a terrorist cell, which consists of just some task-rabbits, receiving parcells and plugging parcels into the "maschine", which charges drones, and releases them according to some mysterious connection. There is nobody on site, to actually commit the acts. Gig economy terrorism, now that has to scale.