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Two People Arrested for Gatwick Airport Drone Incident

posted by takyon on Saturday December 22 2018, @04:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the gotta-catch-'em-all dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Two arrested after drones delay flights and force cancellations at Gatwick Airport

UK police say they have made two arrests in connection with criminal drone activity at Gatwick Airport, and urged the public and passengers around the airport to remain vigilant. Britain's second-largest airport reopened on Friday after a mystery saboteur wrought 36 hours of travel chaos for more than 100,000 Christmas travellers by using drones to play cat-and-mouse with police snipers and the army. [...] The defence ministry refused to comment on what technology was deployed, but drone experts said airports needed to deploy specialist radar reinforced by thermal imaging technology to detect such unmanned flying vehicles.

See also: Gatwick drones: Two arrested over flight disruption

A 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman, from Crawley, were arrested in the town at about 22:00 GMT on Friday.

Previously: Army Called in Amid UK Drone Chaos (Updated)

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @04:53PM (10 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @04:53PM (#777565)

    The snipers may have shot one down and traced the serial number. Or they could have triangulated the signal used to control one of them and found the culpripts.

    I doubt they would frame someone because the accused could have been anywhere on the preceding days when the other drone sightings occurred. That would have a very significant negative result.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by EvilSS on Saturday December 22 2018, @05:02PM

    by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Saturday December 22 2018, @05:02PM (#777569)
    There are also pictures of them using a portable DJI AeroScope, which sniffs known drone RC protocols to identify the drone from its unique ID that it broadcasts and track its movements from commands sent to the drone from the controller and GPS info sent back to the controller. So if they used a drone it could track then they are toast.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @05:35PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @05:35PM (#777585)

    Or they could have triangulated the signal used to control one of them and found the culpripts.

    The fact that this went on for so long strongly suggests the beasties were following pre-programmed GPS tracks.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @05:48PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @05:48PM (#777592)

      Either that, or they're trying to get us used to airports being shut down in preparation for martial law.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by zocalo on Saturday December 22 2018, @07:37PM (2 children)

        by zocalo (302) on Saturday December 22 2018, @07:37PM (#777625)
        While we're wearing the tinfoil, a more plausible "dry run" would be to see what the reaction might be from passengers left stranded and with broken holiday plans in the event of that any UK-based airlines suddenly cannot fly as a result of a hard Brexit. The UK is supposed to be stepping up its "No Deal" planning, right, and barring any postponement we're going to exit just when the summer holiday season starts to ramp up. Yes, there are supposedly contingency plans being put in place but, sooner or later, those stop-gaps are going to come to an end and you just *know* that someone isn't going to be ready in time.
        --
        UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @11:08PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @11:08PM (#777689)

          why? well-timed snow storms already fuck with air travel already.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @11:09PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @11:09PM (#777690)

          While we're wearing the tinfoil, a more plausible "dry run" would be to see what the reaction might be from passengers left stranded and with broken holiday plans

          I hear they sold out of every copy of Drone Aficionado in the airport gift shops. Mission accomplished!

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Bot on Saturday December 22 2018, @08:40PM (2 children)

    by Bot (3902) on Saturday December 22 2018, @08:40PM (#777649) Journal

    > The snipers may have shot one down and traced the serial number.

    shot one what? meatbag or drone? do meatbags have serial numbers? OH YOU MEAN YOU SHOT THE POOR INNOCENT DRONE INSTEAD OF ITS EVIL HANDLER?

    --
    Account abandoned.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @11:11PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @11:11PM (#777691)

      I hate to be the one to break this to you, since you are such a meatbag loving bot, but it could very well be that a drone took the ultimate flight ... all the way up to drone heaven.

      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Monday December 24 2018, @02:01PM

        by Bot (3902) on Monday December 24 2018, @02:01PM (#778091) Journal

        May their battery never deplete.

        --
        Account abandoned.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 23 2018, @10:40AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 23 2018, @10:40AM (#777789)

    Why didn't they give up while they were ahead? A shutdown of 12 hours is very good to make an impact. Just explode the drone or hide it somewhere and move on.
    Why wait around to be arrested?
    Are they stupid?