The end of December is a busy travel season and it’s a time that airport authorities want to ensure that everything keeps running smoothly. That didn’t happen for London’s Gatwick airport this year, though, as a drone flew too close to the airport and necessitated a shutdown. Thousands of passengers were affected as flights were resumed at the UK’s second largest airport after three days. Heathrow and Gatwick are London’s two main airports and both have acquired anti-drone systems.
The British Army was reportedly called in to deal with the situation involving the drone at Gatwick Airport. It’s said that the army used an Israeli-built drone defense system to neutralize the drone.
No further arrests have been made in the Gatwick incident after two people were detained last month but later released without charges. In order to prevent costly airport shutdowns in the future, both Heathrow and Gatwick have spent a considerable amount of money to deploy their own “military-grade anti-drone apparatus.”
The airports haven’t revealed precisely what this technology does to keep drones at bay but do suggest that they will provide a “similar level of protection” to what the army provided during the Gatwick incident. Israeli defense contractor Rafael reportedly manufactures this system which enables operators to jam the radio signals of a drone and allow it to land.
Filed in . Read more about Drones. Source: theguardian