Gatwick airport incident paralyzed UK’s second busiest airport before Christmas 2018 and affected 140,000 passengers. Reason for the disruption were multiple drone sightings near the runway, but even now several weeks after the incident police does not have any real evidence or suspects. What really happened at Gatwick airport? Photoshopped illustration image. Source: pixabay.com Gatwick Airport Paralysed During High Season Before Christmas Just a couple of days before 2018 Christmas season, which is the high season for air traffic, UK’s second busiest airport at Gatwick near London suffered from a major travel disruption (our initial article can be found here). Between 19 and 21 December, hundreds of outbound flights had to be cancelled and hundreds of inbound flights had to be redirected to other airports. The disruption lasted in total 33 hours and was caused by numerous reports of drone sightings close to the runway. In total there were 115 relevant sightings of which 93 were from “credible witnesses” such as a pilot, airport staff and police officers. About 140,000 passengers and over 1,000 flights in total were affected. It was the biggest disruption since ash from an Icelandic volcano shut the airport in 2010. In the end, the British army arrived at Gatwick airport to help renew the disrupted traffic. They deployed anti-drone equipment at the airport which can detect and jam communications between a drone and its operator. The system, which is said to have a range of several miles, uses four radars to give 360-degree detection in...
Published By: CineD - Friday, 4 January, 2019