11 ms·

Quadcopter drone group held in London airport on suspicion of terrorism

34 points by th0ma5 14y ago

MrEnigma 14y ago
It looks like they were only held for a couple of hours and released. Not that I think this is right, but they are flying with lots of wires/electronics/batteries.
- cpswan 14y ago
  It's crazy how the whole movie plot driven security industry has been able to associate naked electronics with bomb making. A friend was commenting last night that the bare PCB of the Raspberry Pi could be seen as dangerous/threatening, and I was speculating about how much trouble I'd get in if I tried to take Arduino based home made toys on a flight.
  - mc32 14y ago
    I think you'll be fine. Friend of mine had a kind home-made led flashlight (small PCB and gangly wires). Friend was pulled aside for questioning and demonstrated its 'torch' capability and then let go thru. The delay was about 20 minutes though. It is silly, but if they've not studied any (even basic breadboarding) electronics, then anything out of the ordinary like that will look 'weird' and arouse caution.
  - the_rara_avis 14y ago
    FWIW, I've flown with an Arduino kit (wires, etc.) in the US and encountered no issues.
- planetguy 14y ago
  Honestly, there are people at the border whose entire job is to look for suspicious items. (It's not like the threat of a bomb attack in London is a purely hypothetical one, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_London http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_... ). If you're gonna carry a suitcase full of weird-looking homemade electronics across the border, then yeah, you're probably gonna wind up answering some questions about 'em. In the end, they were correctly determined to be no threat and free to go with their drones.
  - adaml_623 14y ago
    Also they were coming directly from Dublin to London. Anyone with a knowledge of history should understand the significance of that. Sad but true. Security staff are paid to be paranoid. I don't think this story has anything to do with Drones per se. I think the same phenomena would be triggered by any suitcases full of electronics.
    - joezydeco 14y ago
      ...right before the Olympic Games.
cpswan 14y ago
I'm now feeling lucky that the OSHUG meeting last night, where the topic was drones, didn't get raided - http://oshug.org/event/20 http://oshug.org/event/20
cpswan 14y ago
Here's what happens next: 1. Drones become more and more popular as kids/hackers toys 2. Eventually a drone is used in a real terrorist plot 3. Our politicians over react and ban drones 4. We all write tweets and blogs about what clueless morons our politicians are because the whole thing has been widely understood since (before?) Scott Adams wrote 'The Religion War' 5. Drones don't get unbanned for use outside of police/law enforcement because of whining from the hacker community
- gouranga 14y ago
  All while our unwanted persistent state of war rages and our supposedly but not appointed military counterparts fly armed drones to kill and name people under our name. Fuck this planet sucks. actually no, humans suck as a race.
  - theklub 14y ago
    Join the Pirate Party...I did today. Seriously.
    - gouranga 14y ago
      Why? At least in the UK, their manifesto is crap. Nothing about healthcare or education.
  - theorique 14y ago
    * supposedly but not appointed military counterparts fly armed drones to kill and name people under our name.* Don't worry, it's all cool - they only kill the BAD guys! ;)
    - gouranga 14y ago
      Indeed. They even tell us which are the bad guys so we don't have to exercise our brains!
- MaysonL 14y ago
  since (before?) Scott Adams wrote 'The Religion War' David's Sling by Marc Stiegler(1988) comes to mind as a precursor.
RedwoodCity 14y ago
Glad to see that european airport secuirty is just as incompetent as american TSA officers. In the future have your robots sent by post in advance of your arrival and terrorism officials will be none the wiser.
vampirechicken 14y ago
Repressive governments always fear artists.
mikeash 14y ago
They were questioned by customs because they had a lot of weird stuff in their luggage, and then were allowed through after two hours. Why is this news?
- cpswan 14y ago
  Customs don't normally call the special branch, and whilst being detained for hours is now normal practice in the US it's still (thankfully) pretty unusual in the UK.
  - planetguy 14y ago
    It was two hours. I've spent pretty much that trying to get through customs at Gatwick without suspicious items in my luggage. At least these guys probably had somewhere to sit while they were waiting.
  - mikeash 14y ago
    How unusual is it, though? I imagine it's still something they do multiple times per day, given the large volume of travelers they process.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

34 points by th0ma5 14y ago

It looks like they were only held for a couple of hours and released. Not that I think this is right, but they are flying with lots of wires/electronics/batteries.

cpswan 14y ago
It's crazy how the whole movie plot driven security industry has been able to associate naked electronics with bomb making. A friend was commenting last night that the bare PCB of the Raspberry Pi could be seen as dangerous/threatening, and I was speculating about how much trouble I'd get in if I tried to take Arduino based home made toys on a flight.
- mc32 14y ago
  I think you'll be fine. Friend of mine had a kind home-made led flashlight (small PCB and gangly wires). Friend was pulled aside for questioning and demonstrated its 'torch' capability and then let go thru. The delay was about 20 minutes though. It is silly, but if they've not studied any (even basic breadboarding) electronics, then anything out of the ordinary like that will look 'weird' and arouse caution.
- the_rara_avis 14y ago
  FWIW, I've flown with an Arduino kit (wires, etc.) in the US and encountered no issues.
planetguy 14y ago
Honestly, there are people at the border whose entire job is to look for suspicious items. (It's not like the threat of a bomb attack in London is a purely hypothetical one, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_London http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_... ). If you're gonna carry a suitcase full of weird-looking homemade electronics across the border, then yeah, you're probably gonna wind up answering some questions about 'em. In the end, they were correctly determined to be no threat and free to go with their drones.
- adaml_623 14y ago
  Also they were coming directly from Dublin to London. Anyone with a knowledge of history should understand the significance of that. Sad but true. Security staff are paid to be paranoid. I don't think this story has anything to do with Drones per se. I think the same phenomena would be triggered by any suitcases full of electronics.
  - joezydeco 14y ago
    ...right before the Olympic Games.

cpswan 14y ago

I'm now feeling lucky that the OSHUG meeting last night, where the topic was drones, didn't get raided - http://oshug.org/event/20 http://oshug.org/event/20

cpswan 14y ago

Here's what happens next: 1. Drones become more and more popular as kids/hackers toys 2. Eventually a drone is used in a real terrorist plot 3. Our politicians over react and ban drones 4. We all write tweets and blogs about what clueless morons our politicians are because the whole thing has been widely understood since (before?) Scott Adams wrote 'The Religion War' 5. Drones don't get unbanned for use outside of police/law enforcement because of whining from the hacker community

gouranga 14y ago
All while our unwanted persistent state of war rages and our supposedly but not appointed military counterparts fly armed drones to kill and name people under our name. Fuck this planet sucks. actually no, humans suck as a race.
- theklub 14y ago
  Join the Pirate Party...I did today. Seriously.
  - gouranga 14y ago
    Why? At least in the UK, their manifesto is crap. Nothing about healthcare or education.
- theorique 14y ago
  * supposedly but not appointed military counterparts fly armed drones to kill and name people under our name.* Don't worry, it's all cool - they only kill the BAD guys! ;)
  - gouranga 14y ago
    Indeed. They even tell us which are the bad guys so we don't have to exercise our brains!
MaysonL 14y ago
since (before?) Scott Adams wrote 'The Religion War' David's Sling by Marc Stiegler(1988) comes to mind as a precursor.

RedwoodCity 14y ago

Glad to see that european airport secuirty is just as incompetent as american TSA officers. In the future have your robots sent by post in advance of your arrival and terrorism officials will be none the wiser.

vampirechicken 14y ago

Repressive governments always fear artists.

mikeash 14y ago

They were questioned by customs because they had a lot of weird stuff in their luggage, and then were allowed through after two hours. Why is this news?

cpswan 14y ago
Customs don't normally call the special branch, and whilst being detained for hours is now normal practice in the US it's still (thankfully) pretty unusual in the UK.
- planetguy 14y ago
  It was two hours. I've spent pretty much that trying to get through customs at Gatwick without suspicious items in my luggage. At least these guys probably had somewhere to sit while they were waiting.
- mikeash 14y ago
  How unusual is it, though? I imagine it's still something they do multiple times per day, given the large volume of travelers they process.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]