A comedian with a drone managed to shut down London Gatwick for days, inconveniencing tens of thousands, proving police incompetence and, somewhat incidentally creating a world first. Was it difficult? Not really when the flight controllers are panicky, over-reacting to trifles. Pretty much the worst that could happen is the drone being sucked into an engine. On landing this should be very survivable. On takeoff at full power it would rather more difficult. How easy is it to disable a drone? It is simple with the standard toy drones on sale all over the country. They work on standard frequencies, making jamming straightforward.
Direction finding is not quite so simple but with the right kit in a helicopter and infrared to find bodies it is highly possible. Did the local police succeed or prove their gross incompetence? Try the latter. So did the various government officials, in particular those at the #Civil Aviation Authority. This is precisely their area of responsibility and utter failure.
Given that this problem has been thought about, designs have been turned into products. One machine is made by Jews at a firm called Rafael. HMG bought six sets from them at £2.6 million each but did not invest in the killer laser attachment. Then there is an American firm called Dedrone; their #Dronetracker 3.5 can #Defend against Drone Swarms, multiple targets.
The #Wikipedia's write up is fairly third rate - see it at #Gatwick Drone Incident ex Wiki and Bruce Schneier's article is no help #Drone Denial-of-Service Attack against Gatwick Airport. Given that he is a big name in cyber-security it is a suprise.
Civil Aviation Authority ex Wiki
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is the statutory corporation which oversees and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the United Kingdom. Its areas of responsibility include:
- Supervising the issuing of pilots' licences, testing of equipment, calibrating of navaids, and many other inspections (Civil Aviation Flying Unit).
- Training of Air Traffic Engineers to maintain airport and en-route telecommunications (CAA College of Telecommunications Engineering).
- Managing the regulation of security standards, including vetting of all personnel in the aviation industry (Directorate of Aviation Security).
- Overseeing the national protection scheme for customers abroad in the event of a travel company failure (Air Travel Organisers' Licensing – ATOL).
The CAA is a public corporation of the Department for Transport, liaising with the government via the Standards Group of the Cabinet Office.
Pranksters With Drones Captured By Gatwick Airfield [ 22 December 2018 ]
Disabling enemy drones is easy. They operate on standard frequencies. Radio direction finding is slightly more of a challenge. Five years for each offence sounds about right. It will turn out that they are Hard Left crazies, our moral superiors who weren't breast fed or whatever. For Dedrone this not a problem; it is a major marketing opportunity. It can Defend against Drone Swarms using Dronetracker 3.5, the latest and greatest. Count up major airfields, multiply by a megabuck [ $1,000,000 ] or whatever the market will stand and it's like Christmas every day.
Addendum: The British Army already has the kit, six sets bought from Jews at £2.6 million each. Her Majesty's Government was shocking slow at getting it into action. Flying it back from Syria might have caused the problem but it took over 48 hours to capture "suspects". It was made by a mob called Rafael.
PS The https://www.crunchbase.com/person/andrew-torba#section-jobs is a decent looking chap, an Englishman, not a crazy.
Home Office Stopped RAF Sorting Out The Gatwick Nausea [ 24 December 2018 ]
QUOTE
A crack team of military electronic warfare specialists were prevented from bringing the Gatwick drone crisis to a halt just hours after it started because Ministers refused to sanction their deployment.Ten troops [ but no troopesses ] from the Royal Air Force 2 Field Communications Squadron and four from the Army's 14 Signal Regiment were put on standby following the first sighting at 9pm on Wednesday.
The highly skilled units were poised to be flown into Gatwick in Chinook helicopters and were ready to use sophisticated anti-drone weaponry which would have intercepted and crippled the device. It could even have tracked down the culprits.
UNQUOTE
The Home Office is run by quasi-intellectuals who would manage serious problems like plague, invasion etc. They proved that they are worse than useless again. But they did learn mediaeval Latin or similar rubbish at Oxford.
Gatwick Police Release Totally Innocent Prisoners [ 24 December 2018 ]
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Police have today been slammed for their 'appalling investigation' into the Gatwick chaos after they held a married couple for nearly two days without charge before admitting 'there may never have been a drone.'Paul and Elaine Kirk-Gait returned to their home in Crawley, West Sussex this morning after spending more than 36 hours being questioned by detectives over the device that brought Gatwick Airport to a standstill.
As the culprit remains at large four days after the attack which grounded more than 1,000 flights and 14,000 passengers, police have been accused of failing to interview colleagues who could have vouched for the couple's whereabouts.
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This has been fouled up big time. Her Majesty's Government has the anti-drone kit but not the wit to use it. One moral to take from this demonstration of gross incompetence is to make sure that you are up to speed on Resistance to Interrogation. Another is to sue the swine for Unlawful Arrest, False Arrest, refusing to supply a lawyer, brutality or anything else that comes to mind.
Gatwick Police Are Grossly Incompetent Say Ministers [ 25 December 2018 ]
This is true enough but it side steps the reality; that Her Majesty's Government stepped in to prevent a solution, prolonging the mess by a day or more. It is time for their victims to sue for megabucks.
Sussex Police Told To Get Off The Gatwick Job After Making A Serious Mess Of It [ 26 December 2018 ]
They captured two obvious innocents, let the perpetrators walk and didn't get the protection kit. The latter failure may be the fault of Home Office comedians.
Gatwick Drone Incident ex Wiki
Between 19 and 21 December 2018, hundreds of flights were cancelled at Gatwick Airport near London, England, following reports of drone sightings close to the runway. The incident caused major travel disruption, affecting about 140,000 passengers and over 1,000 flights. It was the biggest disruption since ash from an Icelandic volcano shut the airport in 2010. On 21 December, Sussex Police arrested a drone enthusiast and his partner who lived near the airport, who were released without charge on 23 December.
Army Moves Out Of Gatwick [ 3 January 2019 ]
QUOTE
The British Ministry of Defense has confirmed that the “military capability” it had deployed to prevent illegal drone flights at Gatwick airport has been withdrawn. “The Armed Forces stand ever-ready to assist should a request for support be received,” the MoD added in a statement.Gatwick was brought to a virtual standstill between the 19th and 21st of December when several drones were spotted above the airfield. Roughly 1,000 flights were suspended and tens of thousands of passengers were affected while police searched for the drones’ pilots. The U.K.’s aviation minister said that the culprits could face up to five years behind bars if caught and convicted.
A Gatwick spokesperson insisted the airport would be just as well protected against drones now that the military had left: “We have invested several million pounds to ensure that we are equipped to the level of security that was provided by the armed forces. We can’t go into any more detail about what that equipment is, but a range of measures are in place”.
But according to the Associated Press, an Israeli technology company has said its anti-drone system has drawn major interest in the weeks since the incident at Gatwick. Skylock [ or is that Shylock? ], the company that manufactures the technology, is one of many now specializing in detecting and downing intruder drones by “jamming” them, or disrupting their frequencies.
UNQUOTE
The advertising stunt worked then. Recall that Dancing Jews did something of the sort on 11 September 2001.
Anti-Drone Sales Stunt Is A Brilliant Success [ 10 January 2019 ]
QUOTE
Sky News has learnt several companies have been called to the London airport after departure flights were temporarily grounded on Tuesday evening.One firm says it has technology that can detect, film and track a drone as well as pinpoint its operator. Reading-based Operational Solutions said the technology could be installed at any UK airport within 24 hours and cover the entire site within a week.
The Metropolitan Police is still hunting for the drone operator who caused Tuesday's disruption at Heathrow after the device was seen by several people - including police officers - shortly after 5pm
UNQUOTE
It can be done. It has been done. It should have been done at major civil airfields long ago. But English criminals have led the world, exposing Her Majesty's Government as grossly incompetent. To be fair Theresa May is also doing that without the slightest assistance from anyone else. Sky News mentions one firm aiming to make megabucks out of the Gatwick Nausea. Another is Liteye; it goes from Detect to Defeat in five [ 5 ] seconds, much better than the five days it took the deadbeats of the Civil Aviation Authority.
Gatwick Drone Nausea Cost EasyJet £10 Million [ 23 January 2019 ]
The perpetrators are still out there, laughing up their sleeves and probably keeping very quiet about it.
Drone Denial-of-Service Attack against Gatwick Airport [ 21 December 2018 ]
QUOTE
Someone is flying a drone over Gatwick Airport in order to disrupt service:Chris Woodroofe, Gatwick's chief operating officer, said on Thursday afternoon there had been another drone sighting which meant it was impossible to say when the airport would reopen.
He told BBC News: "There are 110,000 passengers due to fly today, and the vast majority of those will see cancellations and disruption. We have had within the last hour another drone sighting so at this stage we are not open and I cannot tell you what time we will open.
"It was on the airport, seen by the police and corroborated. So having seen that drone that close to the runway it was unsafe to reopen."
The economics of this kind of thing isn't in our favor. A drone is cheap. Closing an airport for a day is very expensive.
I don't think we're going to solve this by jammers, or GPS-enabled drones that won't fly over restricted areas. I've seen some technologies that will safely disable drones in flight, but I'm not optimistic about those in the near term. The best defense is probably punitive penalties for anyone doing something like this -- enough to discourage others.
There are a lot of similar security situations, in which the cost to attack is vastly cheaper than 1) the damage caused by the attack, and 2) the cost to defend. I have long believed that this sort of thing represents an existential threat to our society.
EDITED TO ADD (12/23): The airport has deployed some anti-drone technology and reopened.
EDITED TO ADD (1/2): Maybe there was never a drone.
UNQUOTE
Bruce does not really add to our knowledge.
Gatwick Drone Chaos 'Was An Inside Job' Say Police [ 2 February 2019 ]
This translates into the reality that they failed to find evidence. The might well witter about having suspects but that is an easy excuse to make.
Errors & omissions, broken links, cock ups, over-emphasis, malice [ real or imaginary ] or whatever; if you find any I am open to comment.