Drones at Gatwick Airport

[endofthelinefinally]

Whole airport is shut down. It is chaos and the police can't bring the drone over the runway down.

Quite worrying. The impact now is so huge some people will not be where they want to be for Christmas.
More worrying is who is behind this? And they could.do this to another airport or many.

What I can't understand is why the military have not been called in to down the drone. I guess it's too dangerous in a built up area and they need to find who is behind it.

Can't they get some police /army marksmen on the case?

I do think the manufacturers of Drones should take more responsibility for their irresponsible use (including smuggling I to prisons, and perving through windows) but I thi k that ship has well and truly sailed

I hope that the full weight of the law comes down on those who did this.

Anyone else have an advert for 50% off drones under this thread?

It’s insane that this hasn’t been dealt with quickly but it’s so fortunate that airport staff spotted it in he first place otherwise we could have been waking up to a very different story today.

You can't just shoot at airports, too dangerous in case they miss I'd guess

I'm wondering if there is something more sinister than somoene messing around, I heard on the radio this morning that drones can only fly for a limited time due to battery life yet this has been going on for hours.

Is it something more organised aiming to disrupt the country?

police /army marksmen on the case? I hope not. Its one thing to shoot at something with a solid wall etc. behind to catch any missed bullets, another to go shooting into the air - who knows where the bullet might land?

Surely to goodness they must be able to find some Hunting/Shooting/Fishing type with a 12bore shotgun to take it out? These guys shoot woodcock and snipe!!

I would like to put forward my husband. Former young officer shot prize winner at Bisley. He would love this challenge. Especially if he could also take out the drone owner.

Seriously, during Ww2 people were shooting down enemy aircraft over built up areas.

BBC news reports suggesting at an environmental group disrupting the airport.

Whoever it is needs jail time ( can't see it being a lone person for all these hours of disruption ).

I'm sure I saw a programme recently where they showed a gun that shot a net to trap drones in.

Game birds don't have the capacity to crash land and cause fire/explosions on flammable airport equipment

I don't suppose the problem is that they might miss

www.dronedefence.co.uk/products/netgun-x1/

I’m at the airport atm, very little information is being given. The delay times creeping up, we’re up to the 5 hour mark atm.

even with a net it's going to plummet to its smashy demise somewhere

and there's nothing coming in or out of the airport so unlikely they will hit a 747

We had a drone flying over our car the other evening - it wasn't the type like you buy in a shop for a christmas present, this thing was huge with a powerful beam.

I think they should be banned unless you have to use them professionally.

There's thousands of people in the airport vicinity... people in carparks, walking to/from the terminals, ground staff etc etc. Firing bullets at such a moving target at long range is fraught with danger. There's planes on the runway with passengers who can't disembark and loaded with fuel. Plus the fact that a stray bullet landing on the runway and not found would be potentially catastrophic debris... it was a small piece of debris that got sucked up into the engine and caused the concorde disaster. They could try to take them out with lasers, signal jammers or trained eagles I guess.

Every time it disappears and they try to open the runway, it comes back.
I feel so sorry for all the people who are stuck, especially those with babies who have run out of milk.
The back up is extending across Europe now. CDG airport is backed up now.
This person is having a good laugh. I hope they are caught and get the maximum sentence.
My friend is waiting for her daughter who is coming home from university for Christmas.

There are signal jammers on the market so why haven't they sourced one of these? Why has it taken so long?
Do you think there might be something more sinister going on that they've not told us about?

So finally they have called in the army.
Shocked it's taken doing.
Lets hope they have some solution!

*Shocked it's taken so long

I have a horrible suspicion that there will be a few replacements for whatever drones they manage to remove. I have no words for the idiots who are causing this disruption.

I think it’s awful.

Some people really do have a sadistic streak

Hope they are found and prosecuted to full end of what the law can throw at them

Hope they find the culprit(s) and they get jail time. Sadly I think the chances of them being caught are slim.

Still closed, the army has been brought in.

Just reading about this on BBC. It really is awful. Why would you want to put others through this? Must be harder to catch them now it’s getting dark too.