Gatwick drones: Two arrested over flight disruption

[jpak]

Source: BBC

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.

Flights had been grounded for more than a day, affecting about 140,000 passengers, after drones were seen near the runway.

The airport has since reopened and flights are operating on schedule.

Sussex Police said it was continuing to investigate the "criminal use of drones" and appealed for information.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-46657505

[Auggie]

1. Make an example of them ... no pulled punches.

[Sherman A1]

3. I would march them through the airport

and let the folks have at 'em.

[OnlinePoker]

7. The NY Times article I read said they face life in jail. n/t

[The Mouth]

8. Better in forced servitude to anyone whose life was disrupted.

No better than terrorists.

Make examples of them. Horrific ones.

[Cirque du So-What]

2. Certainly old enough to know better

I was hoping the article included a statement from the perps as to motive.

Ever since this was first reported, it make me wonder what countermeasures are available against rogue drones...signal jamming that wouldn't interfere with air traffic?

[jpak]

4. The New York Post article on this said it was a "sophisticated drone operation"

These were not teenagers playing a prank.

[Auggie]

5. Yeah ... kind of like of recreational computer hacking?

[JackRiddler]

11. The New York Post said that?

Then it's a safe bet it was not.

Every day the NYP assaults my people here in NYC with a bloodthirsty made-up story attacking some patsy of the day on the cover.

[NutmegYankee]

9. Countermeasures already exist.

Any skeet shooting weapon will work.

[adVance democracy]

6. America has No Monopoly on Stupidity

As the Brits themselves would say, "Bloody fools!"

[JackRiddler]

10. Everyone hold your bloodthirst, not open and shut

Here's a story that actually names them:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6522089/Two-people-arrested-criminal-use-drones-Gatwick-Airport.html

The man's boss claims an alibi for him, says he was working at the time.

They are model plane enthusiasts. It is possible they've been wrongly accused. It is also possible that if it was their drones, they are idiots and did not intend to shut down the airport.

You know, innocent until proven guilty, mitigating circumstances based on intent... all that crazy stuff about rights to trials in court and fairness and no cruel and unusual punishments and shit that even 18th century slaveholders believed in so much they included it in the U.S. bill of rights, etc. etc.

[Takket]

13. This happened in the UK, not the US

Though the UK rules are almost identical to ours.

[JackRiddler]

14. Wow! Thanks for clarifying that.

I thought it happened in the no-man's land between East Mordor and West Korea. UK, you say? Where is that again?

But to be a bit nicer, the point is it's always ugly to see people calling in print for exotic punishments for alleged crimes in cases where barely any details are known. And that's why ideas like evidentiary presentation, rule of law, due process, etc., however imperfect, were invented and (incompletely) applied in various places. But even in places that don't have the same rules officially, the same basic ideas are true. Which was my point that I've now had to over-elaborate. But thanks.

[localroger]

16. There is also something very fishy about how this has been presented

There was a Guardian article yesterday claiming that if anybody had refitted the flight controller with a 3G/phone modem for long distance control, they would need a Master's or even Ph.D. -- this is simply bullshit. I know several people with no college ed at all who could do that. Hobby robotics is a thing nowadays. The fact that they told such a stupidly obvious lie in the course of the investigation makes me very skeptical about anything they announce as a conclusion.

[JackRiddler]

18. This is typical hyping

They can't let it be details unknown for now, they must turn everything into big threat, etc. etc. Which it may be, or may not be. But yeah, the nonsense about Popular Mechanics level tweaking is confounding.

[question everything]

12. I thought that sophisticated military can develop a radio message

or something, that can disrupt the directions sent by the operators and bring it down.

But perhaps not..

[JackRiddler]

15. That is a hair-raising possibility.

Electronic jamming weapons of various kinds that could do that exist, that's my impression too.

Other than maybe in the middle of an actual battle, an airport may kind of be a place where you don't want to start deploying them. Even if the use at first is limited to this purpose and very careful, you're kind of paving the way to some big fuck up one day.

[localroger]

17. Modern drones can fly themselves

If they lose the radio signal, they can navigate home or to a neutral collection spot. The only way to prevent that would be to jam GPS, which is both much harder and very highly sketchy compared to jamming control signals. What happens if you jam the GPS depends on whether the programmer (who could very well be a 16-year-old hobbyist) thought of it and what contingencies were put in place. If the drone responds by zooming up to 5000 feet you probably lose the jamming and then it can just fly home. These things are basically flying robots, and how smart they are depends entirely on how smart the person who programmed them was -- and in real life terms, a teenager with summer open can often accomplish a lot more than a professional who is also trying to earn a living.

[Denzil_DC]

19. They did.

Whether it was successful and was what led to the arrests and the cessation of the drone flights (so far, anyway) is another matter.

Earlier this year, the UK military bought six Drone Dome systems from Israeli developer Rafael which do very much what you suggest:

https://www.thejc.com/image/policy:1.474235:1545409066/Gatwick-Drones-police.jpg

At least one was deployed at Gatwick.

[question everything]

20. Thanks. Interesting (nt)

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. Gatwick drone chaos: arrested couple freed without charge

Detectives hunting for the people behind the drone chaos that paralysed Gatwick airport have released the only two people they have arrested and declared them innocent.

Sussex police said on Sunday that the man and woman had been released without charge and ruled out of their inquiries.
...
Det Ch Supt Jason Tingley of Sussex police said in a statement: “Both people have fully co-operated with our inquiries and I am satisfied that they are no longer suspects in the drone incidents at Gatwick.

“It is important to remember that when people are arrested in an effort to make further inquiries it does not mean that they are guilty of an offence and Sussex police would not seek to make their identity public.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/23/gatwick-drone-chaos-arrested-couple-released-without-charge