Gatwick Airport, the UK’s second largest airport, has just become a key example of how thoroughly today’s consumer tech can disrupt our infrastructure. The airport briefly suspended all flights again last week, for the third time in three days, due to suspected drone sightings in the area. That’s right — drones were able to shut down a major UK airport, during the hectic holiday travel season no less, for well over 24 hours, as police and armed forces have seemingly been unable to find those responsible.
The airport initially had its flights suspended at 9PM on a Wednesday evening after the drones were spotted, and though it briefly reopened at 3AM, it was forced to close once more 45 minutes later after the drone flights resumed. The airport remained closed until about 6:14AM on Friday morning, almost 36 hours after the initial sighting, at which time the runway opened to a “limited number of flights,” said a statement from the airport. But the airport was only open until around 8:26PM local time, when police advised the media that flights had to be suspended yet again, reopening about an hour later, with “military measures” in place. And, all the affected inbound flights were diverted to other airports, which mucked up the works there as well.
But here’s the real kick in the pants. Nobody can find the culprits. Police have apparently been unable to locate those responsible for the drones, which had been sighted more than 50 times since the runway was first closed. Given the fairly brief flight time of most drones (you’d need a lot of drones, a lot of batteries, or both) that suggests this disruption may have been planned in advance. Even the Army was called in to lend support to the effort, and at least they were able to ascertain that the incident was not an act of terrorism, but a deliberate attempt to disrupt flights. Which, in layman’s terms, means it’s a bunch of numskulls with drones having a jolly ol’ time at everyone else’s expense.
The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority was definitely not amused, stating that “it is totally unacceptable to fly drones close to airports and anyone flouting the rules can face severe penalties including imprisonment.” There’s currently a £10,000 reward for information leading to their arrest and the perpetrators could face up to five years in jail, that is, if they’re caught. It would be easier to find them if drone owners in the UK were required to register their drones, like they are in the U.S., but they aren’t. At least, not yet. The UK has some laws in the works, but those won’t come into effect for almost another year.
Since it’s difficult, if not impossible, to find these drone joyriders, and since there has been an unsettling increase in drone incidents at airports around the world (13 were reported in November alone), technical measures have been proposed to ensure flying a drone near an airport is not just illegal, but technically impossible. One airspace security company suggests that a combination of radar, camera detection, radio frequency detection, and jamming technologies could be used by airports to shut down illegal drone flights, as well as equipping its drones with “geofencing” software that prevents them from being flown in restricted airspace.
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