Sussex Police admit drones over Gatwick Airport may have been the police department’s own drones

Some of the sightings of drones which kept Gatwick Airport on shutdown may have involved the police’s own craft, a senior officer has admitted.

Source: Some Gatwick drones ‘may have been police devices’

The police chief insists that in spite of this, he’s still certain that there was an illegal drone flight because … well, he has no reasons other than he believes. Ok, fair enough, many of us believe he is an idiot, therefore, this must be true.

The broken drone they found in a field (at unknown location and unknown distance from the airport) – and a second one too – are acknowledged as having no involvement with Gatwick Airport.

The story of the bicyclist seen packing up two drones several miles from the airport? That story has vanished.

The innocent couple they arrested because they lived less than 3 miles from the airport and once flew model aircraft? Oh sorry, they are totally innocent – our bad, oopsie.

140,000+ people at Gatwick on the first day, 21,000 staff, plus police, military and media stakeouts all looking for drones – and not one photo or video clip.

67 or 93 people reported seeing drones? Where are the interviews of these people by the media? Mysteriously, there are none.

During this mass hysteria, some in the media and politics demanded more regulations, and some demanded a ban on all model aircraft – based on hysteria induced paranoia. Will any of the media retract their previous speculation – de facto fake news – reports? Doubtful. And they are shocked when people call them fake news.

How many people have died due to aircraft bird strikes?

There were 14,400 aircraft collisions with birds at just 700 of the 15,000 airports in the U.S. in 2017. 285 people have died since 1988 due to bird strikes. 0 people died due to drones.

Source: https://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_safety/wildlife/faq/

Adds perspective to the hysterical mania created by “journalists” regarding the public use of model aircraft and their alleged danger to aircraft.

Proposed UK law to require drones to be trackable, possibly required to file flight plans before flight

Told ‘ya:

The planned legislation would aim to introduce the mandatory use of an app – most drones are flown through a smartphone or device – which all fliers would have to download.

This would mean they would have to register and provide information which would make them more easily traceable, in a situation where a pilot was committing an offence.

The app could also allow a means of real time two-way communication between the user, other users around them, and relevant government authorities.

Users could even be pushed to pre-file notification of their flight before using a drone at certain heights.

There may be a push for consumer-level drones to have a short battery life of say less than 10 minutes. This would reduce the distance over which a consumer drone could be used for malicious purposes.

Source: Are drone laws going to change after the Gatwick incident? | The Independent

You knew this was coming: “Drone users should be regulated and registered in the same way as firearms certificates.”

This is in the U.K.:

“A drone in the wrong hands could be just as lethal as a gun.

“They are unregulated and can easily be bought by anyone online for under £30. Even the cheapest has a range of 150 metres and can fly for half an hour.

“Drone users should be regulated and registered in the same way as firearms certificates.”

Source: Motorist says he saw Gatwick drone pilot frantically packing up two craft before racing off on a bike amid airport shutdown

Note – there’s a lot of oddities in this story and some things – like 30 pound quadcopters flying for half an hour – that are not true.

The logic is kind of weird. In the U.S., firearms killed over 30,000 people in 2017 alone. Model aircraft? To the best of our knowledge, no one in the nearly century has been killed by model aircraft.