Drone shows how inept UK has become

From: Brian Buckley, Viking Road, Bridlington.

SUCH a demonstration of a kakistocracy has not occurred since our last Prime Minister gambled with this country’s future – why was a simple drone unable to be detected by Gatwick Airport’s internal system? Why was it not able to be traced and why was it not detected by our defence system before it caused such chaos?

I, as should many others, despair at the efficiency and joined up working of our civilian and military forces – how can we believe that we can detect and destroy any airborne attack on our country if we cannot find a supposed drone over Gatwick Airport, let alone say that 3,500 service personnel will be available to help with the Brexit process?

Scrap all public sales of drones and let’s have a joined-up government – a coalition if need be – for our benefit.

From: David Craggs, Shafton Gate, Goldthorpe.

I TOTALLY agree with Geoff North in his letter ‘Why no drone protection?’ (The Yorkshire Post, December 27).

What happened at Gatwick was indeed an absolute shambles. Don’t we have radar systems that can pinpoint these drones? If not, why not? And why weren’t one or more helicopters put in the air with sharp shooters on board instructed to blast the drone out of the sky?

What worries me is that little research may well be being done to study the effect of such a drone entering a plane’s jet engine. I’d like to think that at some research centre drones are being deliberately flown into jet engines to study the effect, but I’m not confident that this is taking place.

The intake of birds has been known to stop a jet engine and do considerable damage, so why not a drone?