[alancalverd]

Two delliberate  incursions of controlled airspace = two crimes. If one endangered a Virgin flight of a G-registered aircraft, and one an American flight of an N-reg, each could and should be prosecuted by the relevant authority. 

Imagine you killed a pedestrian by dangerous driving on Monday, and another on Tuesday. One crime or two?

[syhprum (OP)]

A crashed  drone has been recovered from near Gatwick and will be examined for any clues as to who launched it, after the first suspects were exonerated there seems to have been little progress.

[Petrochemicals]

Two delliberate  incursions of controlled airspace = two crimes. If one endangered a Virgin flight of a G-registered aircraft, and one an American flight of an N-reg, each could and should be prosecuted by the relevant authority. 

Imagine you killed a pedestrian by dangerous driving on Monday, and another on Tuesday. One crime or two?

Both would be tried in the uk as seperate counts. Five counts of murder on uk soil, one was australian 3 british and a frenchmanperson. All would be tried as 5 counts of murder in the uk. They would not be eligable to be tried in france and then australia.

This is the best terrorism ive seen. Plug a drone station and control it from the dark web. Absolutley untracable.

[alancalverd]

"UK soil" is the operative word. An aircraft moving under its own power is considered part of the territory of its registration, just like a ship on the high seas.

[Bored chemist]

This is the best terrorism ive seen.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/gatwick-drone-latest-police-say-it-is-a-possibility-there-was-never-a-drone-a4024626.html

[alancalverd]

Now that really is creative terrorism. Do nothing, nobody gets hurt, everyone runs about screaming. Genius.

[syhprum (OP)]

You are not going to induce much terror if no one gets hurt.

[alancalverd]

But that is exactly what happened at Gatwick. Major airport shut down for days, thousands seriously inconvenienced, children in tears, police and military running about in circles, government embarrassed to the point of urgently discussing new legislation, insurance companies facing bankruptcy, general panic spread by the press and broadcasters, probable knock-on effect to be felt by airlines worldwide....everything a terrorist would want to demonstrate the fragility of a corrupt and decadent society, blah, blah....but no actual deaths or debris, and a suspicion put about by the police that nothing really happened at all.

[evan_au]

So was it just a plot by the local residents to reduce aircraft noise, at the busiest time of the year?

[alancalverd]

Doesn't make great sense. Gatwick is pretty much saturated every day, and possibly more aircraft movements in summer with lots of charter flights. Winter is mostly scheduled flights, just more filled seats before Xmas. Given that most civilians spend December indoors, any noise protests are more likely to peak on summer evenings. Gatwick approach and departure routes are actually over fairly unpopulated areas compared with Heathrow, City, Luton or Southend, and it is odd that the couple initially arrested on suspicion live in Crawley which is inside the controlled traffic zone but not under the main noise footprint.

[evan_au]

As I recall, landing at London City airport felt rather unconventional, with a very sharp descent at the last minute...
I guess noise abatement is very important in a built-up city.

[alancalverd]

LCY has a 5.5° approach, which takes some getting used to: the normal glide slope is 3°or 3.5°. For most jet and turboprop aircraft this requires a descent of 1000 - 1500 ft/minute (17 mph downwards!) . A busy time in the cockpit, but the final run in at night, over the city or along the Thames estuary, is a treat for the passengers!

[chris]

I saw a picture in The Times yesterday of some equipment being assembled on a roof at Gatwick "to prevent future drone disruption".

What might that have been?

[RD]

I saw a picture in The Times yesterday of some equipment being assembled on a roof at Gatwick "to prevent future drone disruption".

What might that have been?

"prevent ... disruption" via early detection ? : it's got a helluva big lens on it ... 
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46754489

[RD]

This looks similar ...

The FLIR Ranger HRC electro-optical camera is a portable, long-range thermal-imaging surveillance system with multi-sensor options. The camera has a cooled ruggedized large-format 640-by-480-pixel indium antimonide infrared detector, autofocus, and 12.5X continuous zoom capability.

https://www.militaryaerospace.com/articles/2014/07/flir-ir-cameras.html

[alancalverd]

Excellent. Just add a small killer drone and the job is done. FLIR is pretty good in low-level haze, and if you track your intercepting missile with another telescope you can use the difference in azimuth and range to steer it. Chances are that the target will be looking downwards, so come in high and out of the sun, just like the old days. Lots of fun. A thin cable, like a miniature barrage balloon, will disable the target nicely.

[RD]

... A thin cable, like a miniature barrage balloon, will disable the target nicely ...

Forget the balloon , fight fire with fire ... https://www.flir.co.uk/suas/uas-thermal-kits/

[Colin2B]

I saw a picture in The Times yesterday of some equipment being assembled on a roof at Gatwick "to prevent future drone disruption".

What might that have been?

It’s a system called Drone Dome developed by Israel. It’s an S-band 90° hemispheric radar (four radars to give full 360° coverage, combined with infrared surveillance, and a wideband detection sensor. The drone can be hit by linking the system to a laser, rf jammer, or a high pressure water gun depending on the threat.

It has three operating modes: track while search, target revisit, and single target tracking. The radar usually has a detection range of about 50 km for a target the size of a transport aircraft, but for drones it would typically provide a detection range of between 3.5 km and 10 km. As well as providing detection, the RPS-42 also offers the option for a ‘soft-kill’ of the drone with an RF jammer.

[RD]

... The drone can be hit by linking the system to a laser, rf jammer, or a high pressure water gun depending on the threat...

RF jammer is not much use for autonomous drones, maybe jam them from getting GPS-signal so they lose their bearings, but they're not going to drop out of the sky.

Having a drone with a GPS autopilot flight system and camera is essential for aerial photogrammetry, 3D mapping and multispectral imaging. For aerial photography, it is great to let the drone fly on autopilot on a given route, while you concentrate on working the camera capturing the best of video and stills.

Some of the videos allegedly showing drone-killing laser-weapons look unbelievable ...


YouTube v=dsudx1vr0k8.jpg (58.34 kB . 1280x800 - viewed 2960 times)

Looks more like explosives. Could one deliver that much energy, that quickly, at a distance ?,
 & only affecting the target : no collateral damage 

[alancalverd]

If you jam GPS, everyone else will drop out of the sky or drive into farm tracks. And a "lost" drone is still a hazard to navigation.

I like the water jet - a neat weapon for my killer drone! Or maybe a machine gun firing ice pellets?