Gatwick airport chaos exposes the havoc drones can cause
The disruption to hundreds of flights at London’s Gatwick airport after it was buzzed by miniature drones shows just how easy it can be to disrupt advanced aviation networks with simple, inexpensive devices.
Airports have been raided by drones before. Dubai International was briefly closed in 2016, and Wellington, New Zealand’s main hub was shuttered for 30 minutes this year when a mystery craft was spotted close to the runway.
But as thousands of travelers at Britain’s second-busiest airport try desperately to salvage their holiday plans, the incident reveals how tough it is for authorities to combat the problem created by this game-changing form of aviation technology. Gatwick was still closed Thursday evening, about a full day after the drone sightings first shut down commercial flights.
While airfield operators around the world have been girding for more drone disruptions and safety issues, the length and severity of the chaos at Gatwick is a stunning eye-opener, said Christopher Oswald, vice president for safety and regulatory affairs at the Airports Council International, a trade group in North America.
“It just represents all of these very thorny challenges, which Gatwick does really bring into very stark relief,” he said.
The law already is clear in most jurisdictions and penalties for violation can be severe. In the UK, drones aren’t allowed to fly within 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) of airports and can’t climb above 400 feet, to avoid conflict with flight paths. Aviation Minister Liz Sugg said the operators of the Gatwick craft could face five-year jail terms if caught. That’s a big “if.”
Modern airports rival the size of some cities, making their perimeters almost impossible to permanently police. And surrounding buildings offer almost limitless opportunities for drone operators to hide while maintaining line-of-site control of their troublesome devices.
The latest drone technology adds a new dimension. Relatively affordable unmanned devices can be flown miles away from an operator using remote video that shows the equivalent of a plane’s cockpit view.
British police said the Gatwick incursions were clearly deliberate, as the drones variously appeared, vanished and then emerged again from Wednesday night through most of Thursday. That could shift attention from how best to regulate drone flights to practical ways of neutralizing the threat and finding scofflaws.
US law enforcement and homeland security agencies are drafting standards that would require all but the tiniest drones to broadcast their identity and position so authorities could identify operators who have crossed the line. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies blocked aviation regulators from moving ahead two years ago with rules allowing more unmanned flights over crowds until authorities could move ahead to address security concerns. Bloomberg News