Gatwick Chaos

[Hobosapien]

Still no flights anywhere near Gatwick:

Flight Tracker | Flightradar24 | Track Planes In Real-Time


Though there are some grey boxes moving about at the airport when zooming in. Presume these are not UFOs.

Seems odd that there aren't even any planes on the ground showing up, unlike the absolute pile-on at Heathrow. I guess the yellow planes only appear when the plane is active not just parked up at a terminal.

Something doesn't seem right. Apparently there was bad weather at Gatwick overnight so even industrial/military
grade drones would have struggled to fly. I'm going with decepticons appearing as drones, or more likely the drones were only seen on radar and are phantoms due to bugs in the system. Probably a software upgrade gone wrong.

[NickFitz]

Still no flights anywhere near Gatwick:

Flight Tracker | Flightradar24 | Track Planes In Real-Time


Though there are some grey boxes moving about at the airport when zooming in. Presume these are not UFOs.

Seems odd that there aren't even any planes on the ground showing up, unlike the absolute pile-on at Heathrow. I guess the yellow planes only appear when the plane is active not just parked up at a terminal.

Something doesn't seem right. Apparently there was bad weather at Gatwick overnight so even industrial/military
grade drones would have struggled to fly. I'm going with decepticons appearing as drones, or more likely the drones were only seen on radar and are phantoms due to bugs in the system. Probably a software upgrade gone wrong.

Flightradar24 depends on people picking up ADS-B transmissions (or similar) and feeding them to the site. If the airport is closed, the planes are going to turn off their transmitters so there won't be any transmissions to pick up: How it works - Flightradar24.com - Live flight tracker!

The reason you can see loads of planes on the ground at other airports is that they're either powered up ready to depart, or haven't yet powered down after arriving.

The grey boxes are ground vehicles belonging to the airport. They are also fitted with ADS-B so they show up on ATC's screens, making it easier to avoid landing a plane on one of them as it trundles along the runway.

[jds 1981]

It's skynet, finally become self aware. Rather than try to destroy humanity it just turns out to be a twat.

[Old Greg]

It's skynet, finally become self aware. Rather than try to destroy humanity it just turns out to be a twat.

Opening salvo.

[Hobosapien]

Mystery solved. It was some bloke testing out the drone toy he bought his kid for crimbo (got to put in some pre-wrapping play time to make sure no defects found ), got home and wondered what all the fuss is about.

Sorry, won't do it again. Drone all wrapped up now. Fuzz still chasing their tails.

[Hobosapien]

Flights cancelled until at least 7pm.

Drone last sighted at around noon.

Estimated two hour long wait to queue for a coffee.

What an absolute shambles.

Just a taster of what to expect post March 2019.

[SeededLoaf]

There's a brilliant film idea here, i'm suprised no one else has suggested it!

A plane gets hit by a load of drones causing dual engine failure.

The quick thinking pilot lands on the Thames and everyone survives. Hurrah

[vwdan]

My theory is that the Police/Government/Military have held off deploying any "special tech", due to not wanting to publicly demonstrate any of our capabilities on what is disruption, not a life threatening attack. Might have to be disclosed in court, too, potentially. Obviously as time goes on, their options become more limited.

Very odd situation, I'll be very very curious as to how it plays out.

I think the Police would have engaged it conventionally with rifles, had they genuinely seen it as a threat initially. I'm guessing everybody feels that's too risky/ineffective to do in a planned way. Though I am surprised that it wasn't seen as a priority to capture one, if not for forensics.

Surely consumer drones use a frequency for remote control that is not interfering with airports or aircraft so just jam that frequency around the airfield border.

The Police and Airports won't just randomly have ECM devices. Counter Terrorism officers may do, Special Forces and some other units definitely do. But, even so, many drones are designed to operate without a direct control link so it'll either return to base, hover or just continue along a defined path.

Also, jamming isn't really that straightforward - you can't just jam a particular frequency like that, it's far more messy and potentially more dangerous the drone. Remember, this is about safe conclusions.

Also, if planes are built to withstand bird strikes then surely a small plastic drone ain't going to do as much damage as a frozen turkey or whatever they use to test such things.

Nope - for one, they not be that small. Two, while aircraft are designed to put up with a strike, and engines specifically tested, it's still something you avoid at all costs. Planes are held off due to birds all the time.

[Old Greg]

Flights cancelled until at least 7pm.

Drone last sighted at around noon.

Estimated two hour long wait to queue for a coffee.

What an absolute shambles.

Just a taster of what to expect post March 2019.

Yikes. Any news about the bars?

[Dark Black]

Army called in now apparently..

Army called in amid Gatwick disruption - BBC News