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Gatwick drones pair 'no longer suspects'
A man and woman arrested in connection with drone sightings that grounded flights at Gatwick Airport have been released without charge. The 47-year-old man and 54-year-old woman, from Crawley, West Sussex, had been arrested on Friday night.
Sussex Police said there had been 67 reports of drone sightings - having earlier cast doubt on "genuine drove activity". Det Ch Supt Jason Tingley said no footage of a drone had been obtained. And he said there was "always a possibility" the reported sightings of drones were mistaken. However, he later confirmed the reported sightings made by the public, police and airport staff from December 19 to 21 were being "actively investigated".
"We are interviewing those who have reported these sightings, are carrying out extensive house-to-house inquiries, and carrying out a forensic examination of a damaged drone found near the perimeter of the airport." Det Ch Supt Tingley said it was "a working assumption" the device could be connected to their investigation, but officers were keeping "an open mind".
Sounds like they're about ready to blame aliens, the original drone champions.
Previously: Army Called in Amid UK Drone Chaos (Updated)
Two People Arrested for Gatwick Airport Drone Incident
(Score: 5, Informative) by canopic jug on Monday December 24 2018, @09:29AM (6 children)
Sounds like they were in a hurry to show results and just grabbed some almost random people off the street to trot in front of the rabid press to make it look like something had been done. It probably saved that poor fellow and his wife that there were alibis otherwise they'd still have their names being actively run through the mud. I also notice that many headlines and more articles proclaimed decisively that there were "eco-warriors" involved, even before the two scapegoats were arrested.
Things were handled so poorly that it might just turn out to all have been a hoax [telegraph.co.uk]. It'll take a while for the dust to settle and because authorities and the airport were so badly embarrassed, hoax or not, the public might never get to find out what actually happened.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 24 2018, @11:00AM (1 child)
Aye, the problem is that someone in the Police leaked their names to the press, that's usually a calculated weasel move by the plods. So far, I've not heard anyone explain why they thought this pair were the guilty parties...other than the fact that the husband, as the Independent reported, '..was known by neighbours to be keen on flying model planes and helicopters.'
Ho hum,
in the words of the theme song to a fucking annoying Aussie soap opera popular in the UK 'Neighbours,
Everybody needs good neighbours....'
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Monday December 24 2018, @11:17AM
Don't worry, I believe we're still producing it. The show I mean, not good neighbours, they're harder to come by.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 24 2018, @11:24AM
Just like the terrorist incident in the Lindt chocolate shop [wikipedia.org]. Both of these cases could have been handed far better.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Monday December 24 2018, @01:09PM
Faaaake! It was all a test to prepare the public for martial law following an unplanned Brexit!
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by RS3 on Monday December 24 2018, @03:33PM
Or could it be a case of swatting?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 24 2018, @07:12PM
A hoax? Or another government agency playing with new surveillance technology?
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday December 24 2018, @10:46AM (2 children)
The Daleks usually time their attacks to coincide with the Doctors Xmas special don't they?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 24 2018, @11:06AM
They'd be wasting their time this year....Alas!, no Christmas special
(actually, s/Alas/Thank\ Fuck/g )
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 24 2018, @06:34PM
"Det Ch Supt" - I first though they had a Vietnamese spokesperson or something, then later decoded the Dalek Dialect for what it is :)
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday December 24 2018, @12:27PM (4 children)
Umm... Pretty sure the original drones were bees, since that's where the word comes from [etymonline.com].
All the other senses of the word derive from those honeybees who don't actually make honey -- the sound (a drone -- the sound of the word itself is likely imitative of bees), "droning on" obviously from that, the sense of an unthinking person just obeying orders and working (as drones do to a queen bee), drones as robots (similarly unthinking beings subservient to a "queen" or other authority), and lastly these aircraft, which not only "buzz" but were named that because they lack their own autonomous control.
Aliens would only be "drones" if they were controlled remotely. If small craft had thinking sentient beings on board controlling them, they would simply be alien air/spacecraft, not "drones."
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday December 24 2018, @12:46PM
X-Files s03e12
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(Score: 5, Informative) by Oakenshield on Monday December 24 2018, @02:17PM (2 children)
Drone are male bees. Worker bees are female and are the only ones obeying orders and working in the hive. The only job a drone bee has is to inseminate the queen (in mid flight), an act which costs him his life. His junk literally explodes into the queen. The queen mates only once in her life, but with multiple drones. Drones are easily identified in the hive as they are larger and wider than the workers. The drones have no stingers, do not protect the hive and generally sit around and are waited on by the workers. There are only a handful in any given hive.
Their lives are not all fun and games though. As they are generally useless, particularly after the queen has mated, they are kicked out of the hive at the onset of winter and left to die on their own, only to be replaced the following year. The hive does not raise queens or swarm over winter and has no need of drones.
Bees are cool as hell and fascinating to raise. And as one apiarist to the rest of the world, please learn the difference between bees and yellow jackets! Bees do not harass you at fall picnics. Those are yellow jackets, a type of wasp. There is usually no reason to fear European bees as they rarely sting or bother anyone. Africanized bees are another story.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday December 24 2018, @08:33PM (1 child)
Yes, obviously. I didn't mean "working" in the sense of "worker bee" -- though sorry for using a bad phrase and creating confusion.
Regardless of all the bee talk, my point seems to have been lost -- the drones are fairly "mindless" and don't do much (as you say) except serve the queen. Hence all the figurative uses of the word, including modern flying drones, with no pilot, only serving the user on the ground. Whether or not drones "obey" or "serve" the queen in actual beehives, etymologically, that's the interpretation of the word that stuck. (Perhaps due to a historical misunderstanding of the role of drones in hives?)
But definitely good point about the yellow jackets being wasps... Something too few people seem to realize (until they discover different allergic reactions to different things...).
(Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Tuesday December 25 2018, @01:15AM
I confess I sometimes get carried away discussing bees.
As for bee drones, it's most likely 99% of people have never seen one. They are pretty rare as they have very limited purpose and none unless the hive raises new queens. When you open a hive, they are only slightly easier to find than the queen herself. You will never seen one leaving the hive in search of pollen or nectar.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday December 25 2018, @12:11AM (3 children)
Gatwick drone arrest couple feel 'completely violated' [bbc.com]
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(Score: 4, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday December 25 2018, @12:23AM (2 children)
Sounds like the perfect excuse to spend 5 million pounds on equipment to prevent copycat attacks.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday December 25 2018, @12:26AM (1 child)
And it will come (partially) out of the couple's tax dollars.
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(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday December 25 2018, @02:05PM
As inconvenient as this is for the couple I suspect if they play it well they're going to make quite a profit out of the whole situation in the end.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 25 2018, @12:23PM
https://www.news.com.au/world/europe/gatwick-airport-drone-couple-wrongly-accused-of-incident-distressed-and-violated/news-story/1114b5bff42f4b8f3e5bdfa16384ac98 [news.com.au]
Bet they sue.