Droning on.

[Workingman]

Horse - stable door.

It is too late to ban them as there are tens of thousands of them out there.

However, the punishments for using them illegally should not be fixed, they should be commensurate with the damage caused. The Gatwick incident will have cost untold millions of pounds directly, with hundreds of thousands of lives disrupted at personal cost.

Slam - key - throw away.

[Suff]

Slam - key - throw away.

I agree totally, but it's about their human rights to mess with our rights you know.

[Workingman]

News is that after opening for a short time Gatwick is closed again.

[Workingman]

Now open again....

[Suff]

Well I suppose if they can't shoot the drones down they could always shoot the operators... They are, after all, posing a significant threat to human life...

Not that it will happen.

Whoever's desk got the "fix the problem" memo now has a new memo. "Fix the problem NOW".

The problem is, as WM said, this is not an easy one to fix. Most easy solutions have a risk to the aircraft already in the air or to the people on the ground. Military detection solutions are fine, but military solutions to resolve the issue tend to be noisy and/or dangerous. Civilian drones tend to be controlled on the same frequency as wireless networks. Given that we can't use mobile phones on a plane which is flying, pushing out a massive blanking frequency to block wifi or 5.8ghz is going to pose quite a risk to planes in the vicinity.

I suspect anti drone is going to be a growth business shortly.

[Workingman]

Any military solution might work, but be aware the mil does not really care about collateral damage. In a war zone collateral damage is inevitable.

With a civilian airport, in peace time in the West, that flies out the window and other solutions have to be found. Unfortunately those solutions do not currently exist in real terms.

Kabul airport would have seen a totally different approach.

[cromwell]

Two people have been arrested. If charged and found guilty they should be handed to the delayed passengers!

[Suff]

Two people have been arrested. If charged and found guilty they should be handed to the delayed passengers!

I'd be OK with that. However this has already set a precedent. Those who want to disrupt our lives and society have just found a new way in which to do so.

Unfortunately I can think of a few rather unpleasant uses of Drones at an airfield, much more damaging than just a drone crashing into a plane. If I can, then so can others....

[Kaz]

Two people have been arrested. If charged and found guilty they should be handed to the delayed passengers!

I agree with you!

[Workingman]

Two people have been arrested. If charged and found guilty they should be handed to the delayed passengers!

Cracking idea.

The problem now, as Suff hints at, is what they will be used for next time. We already know that drones are used to deliver phones and drugs to prisons. It will not take much for one to be modified to 'deliver' something else to any given target.