Fellow Flightradar geeks - come here

[KenAdams]

Gatwick has suspended all flights due to two zones in their airspace. They are now having to find somewhere for numerous planes to land if you want to watch on the app. I'm watching an Easyjet Madrid to Gatwick one. Thought it might land at EMA but it's still going.

You think they might be a bit big for this solution, then:

Golden eagles can carry about 4kg so they could carry a drone, I've ready that hawks can be trained to as well though it could be problematic as hawks like to eat their food in situ, whereas eagles will snatch and fly off with it. We occasionally see hawks catching squirrels and rabbits and they pin them down and eat them there and then.

I'm beginning to think this idea might have legs wings! I think some airports already use raptors for discouraging other birds.

How do we get into flight radar? I downloaded an app but never got on with it

My own pet ideas are that, to be legal for sale/import in this country, every drone should contain:
a) a "beacon" that broadcasts its registered id (obvs need registration)
b) a parachute that deploys under sudden vertical deceleration.

That would cover inadvertent failures in flight as well as deliberate downing.

Obviously people would still attempt to import non-compliant drones, but that would be an offence in itself. It might well reduce the numbers of problem-drones dramatically.

What I don't understand is how someone is managing to keep these drones airborne for so long

Extra batteries. We don't know how many people and how many drones there are but while they are flying in and out, the airport remains closed and I assume that the operators are hiding in the woods somewhere near the airport? So they just bring the drone back, swap the battery and carry on flying.

Astonishing how much disruption this has all caused and I hope they catch whoever it is and they deal with them harshly to discourage others from doing the same, because for those who want to disrupt air travel for whatever reason, this seems alarmingly easy to accomplish.

There's a plane on the ground at Gatwick now, callsign FIRE4. Wonder what that's about?

Scrub that, transponder now off.

That’s brilliant Perking. Go eagles!

apple.news/AJ31zPsLLSxCuBGSexq5kfg

Deary me

Or (warms to theme), is there the possibility of teeny tiny sticky trackers in some sort of spray shot, so that just like shotgun pellets one is likely to hit?

Oh I missed this last night. Are planes still on divert or has it reopened?

Diversions slowing down because there are no outbound flights so no return journey coming in. Everything is just cancelled

Can't believe this has been going on for so long.

There was Fire1, 2 & 3 earlier. I expect they are the usual fire vehicles that all airports have, it's probably all hands on deck looking for the drones/operators.

Like Italiancortado I can't believe it's going on still, so many people having Xmas ruined.

Seen on Twitter - 'Which idiot thought it'd be a good idea to give Elf on the Shelf a drone?'

Having had family fly over for a funeral this year, i hate to think people might have flown over for a funeral and missed it.

I expected this thread to die in the middle of the night as I expected the situation to be resolved. I can't believe it's still going on.

KenAdams is the 3D the only option to view the flight aside from the map with the yellow planes?

Yes I think so

They've diverted a plane from Malaysia to Gatwick to an airport on the coast of Bulgaria. You'd be seriously pissed off with that wouldn't you?
I wonder if they had some kind of problem and needed to land for another reason.

Ah, it's taking off again and going into Stansted. Refueling perhaps?

What was it brizzle

Found it. The TUI.

it won't have been a fuel stop, Dreamliners have a huge range.

Yeah, weird how it landed there isn't it. I guess they had their reasons which we won't know. Odd place to choose to land and then carry on to Stansted.

Is it diverting into Stansted?

That's what TUI are saying.