Disruption in the skies

December 20, 2018 11:52 AM

Drones flying over London's Gatwick Airport have shut down all flights A drone has flown in and out of the airport's perimeter for nearly 24 hours and the airport is now closed until at least 6 a.m. tomorrow. Thousands of passengers have been stranded, all flights in and out of Gatwick have been cancelled, and sniper teams and the military have been called in to try to disable the drone. Some methods for disabling drones include lasers, nets, and birds of prey.

Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate agreed it was a "highly targeted activity" and added: "It cannot be right that drones can close a vital part of our national infrastructure in this way. This is obviously a relatively new technology and we need to think through together the right solutions to make sure it cannot happen again."

posted by stillmoving (107 comments total)

It’s all fun and games until someone misses a red-eye.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 11:55 AM on December 20, 2018 [22 favorites]

What if there is no human operator?
posted by glonous keming at 11:56 AM on December 20, 2018 [15 favorites]

Do they do deportation flights out of Gatwick?
posted by Frowner at 11:56 AM on December 20, 2018 [8 favorites]

> glonous keming:"What if there is no human operator?"

What if the real operator was the friends we made along the way?
posted by signal at 11:58 AM on December 20, 2018 [18 favorites]

Do they do deportation flights out of Gatwick?

Yes. Lots. For more info (although I'm not suggesting that the charity has anything to do with this incident).
posted by Catseye at 11:59 AM on December 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

Of course if this was America, we'd have a bunch of drone-rights activists talking about how now is not the time to discuss anti-drone legislation. #thots&preyers

And finally, Lasers, Nets, & Birds of Prey is a late entry for sockpuppet/bandname of the year.
posted by glonous keming at 12:00 PM on December 20, 2018 [19 favorites]

Man, if it is some kind of anti-deportation effort, I hope whoever is doing it is really, really good. If they were willing to use terrorism statutes against the Stansted 15, this person will end up in a torture prison for life if they're caught.
posted by Frowner at 12:02 PM on December 20, 2018 [10 favorites]

Someone flew a drone over an SCA* event, and one of the fighters took it out with a spear. One of our finest days, really.

*Medieval re-enactment
posted by corvikate at 12:06 PM on December 20, 2018 [72 favorites]

posted by stillmoving

Eponysterical!
posted by chavenet at 12:10 PM on December 20, 2018 [4 favorites]

If terrorists were smart we would be so fucked.
posted by allegedly at 12:14 PM on December 20, 2018 [11 favorites]

If governments really do have directed Electro-Magnetic Pulse weapons (EMPs), which I think is at least an even bet, the relevant branch must be grinding its teeth in frustration that they aren't allowed to use it in this situation because it would spill the beans.
posted by jamjam at 12:15 PM on December 20, 2018 [6 favorites]

Here's a gif of the drone being taken out by the spear, as well as the AWESOME RUNESTONE that someone painted to commemorate the incident.
posted by JDHarper at 12:17 PM on December 20, 2018 [94 favorites]

I thought there was geofencing built in to all consumer drones these days to prevent exactly this kind of shitshow.
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:25 PM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you take down the drone, there's no reason for the operator to keep transmitting, (assuming some sort of communication between drone and ground station.)

But I suspect that drone operators will face regulation before American firearm owners.
posted by GenderNullPointerException at 12:27 PM on December 20, 2018 [5 favorites]

They’re not consumer drones, the BBC
are saying they are multiple "industrial specification" drones.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:31 PM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I thought there was geofencing built in to all consumer drones these days to prevent exactly this kind of shitshow.

This is unfortunately the problem with safety controls baked into software - if the software isn't there, the geofencing isn't either. It's entirely possible to modify the firmware of a consumer drone to remove geofencing. This also doesn't preclude you from buying a cheap controller board from China, a few motors, and a radio transmitter and just rolling your own drone.

I think the discussion needs to shift to countermeasures.
posted by redct at 12:35 PM on December 20, 2018 [6 favorites]

What happens when drones are flying around every nearby airport simultaneously? Then you can't even re-route planes elsewhere. What if there's no active transmitting and the drones are flying on pre-programmed routes so you can't even trace a signal somewhere (not that a signal couldn't be repeated from elsewhere)? What if they were positioned weeks or months ago so you can't even look up surveillance footage to see who did it? This is all stuff that I'd imagine hobbyists would be able to do if they wanted to. I'd hate to think of what a state actor could do.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:36 PM on December 20, 2018 [13 favorites]

Stewart Wingate. Is that his real name?
posted by waving at 12:37 PM on December 20, 2018

Where's a squad of good ole boys with shotguns when you need 'em?
posted by bwvol at 12:48 PM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Where's a squad of good ole boys with shotguns when you need 'em?

Somewhere you don't.
posted by The Bellman at 12:56 PM on December 20, 2018 [39 favorites]

Ugh, an evening flight from Kiev was diverted to Birmingham but the passengers were not allowed off and had to sleep on the plane all night.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 1:02 PM on December 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

I can't help the feeling there is more to this than we are being told at present, if this was just some mad prankster they would surely have gotten bored and gone home by now. The drones have been flying for nearly 24 hours which implies a team effort unless they are completely autonomous.
Could it be extortion "pay us a squillion bitcoin or we keep the airport closed all weekend"?
posted by Lanark at 1:06 PM on December 20, 2018 [5 favorites]

From the reports I've seen, it appears that perhaps there have only been three drone sightings during the incident:

The shutdown started just after 21:00 on Wednesday when two drones were spotted flying "over the perimeter fence and into where the runway operates from".

The runway briefly reopened at 03:01 on Thursday but was closed again about 45 minutes later due to "a further sighting of drones".

The airport said at about 12:00 a drone had been spotted "in the last hour".

posted by Juffo-Wup at 1:11 PM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

This happened at Gatwick last year also (previously on metafilter, although unfortunately the video linked to there has disappeared now).
posted by dng at 1:11 PM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

There's nothing to indicate that the drones have been flying continuously for 24 hours. They have been sighted multiple times, but that's easily accomplished by flying them back somewhere and changing batteries.

Could certainly be an extortion attempt though. The big drones aren't cheap, and you have to assume it's going to be destroyed in the attempt, so either some shitheel prankster has deep pockets or it's somebody who thinks it's going to pay off for them.
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:12 PM on December 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

As somebody who has read quite a few mystery novels, I’m pretty sure I’ve cracked the case. Who else but the people who sell drone defense systems to airports? Surely they’d be some of the few people who’d have detailed knowledge of current countermeasures. They stand to make an enormous profit by making this security issue seem like a crisis. It sounds from articles about Gatwick that their businesses have been struggling to convince airports and other businesses to upgrade their defenses. It could be “pranksters” or politically motivated people acting for the sake of economic disruption and chaos, but I can’t see who could have a stronger motive and more certain means than the drone defense people.
posted by vathek at 1:15 PM on December 20, 2018 [9 favorites]

If only someone could have predicted something like this.
posted by Naberius at 1:15 PM on December 20, 2018 [26 favorites]

Yes, not continuous flight but have been spotted again according to the Guardian:

At least two drones, described as “substantial” by the government, “commercial” by the transport secretary, and “industrial” by police, were spotted repeatedly by staff in and around the airport perimeter from Wednesday night.

Extortion sounds like a good guess. Although, (dons tinfoil hat) it does seem odd that they've not been able to disable them for so long! I would think if there were a threat to public safety, they would have evacuated the airport long ago. But also seems strange that they've kept passengers so much in the dark--some reports said planes landed at 9 last night and everyone slept on board until 5 am this morning!
posted by stillmoving at 1:17 PM on December 20, 2018

Naberius did it. Case closed, go home everybody.
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:17 PM on December 20, 2018 [6 favorites]

If only someone could have predicted something like this.

Remember to say nothing but "I want a lawyer" when the cops show up.
posted by bondcliff at 1:18 PM on December 20, 2018 [10 favorites]

Gives you wonderful faith in the UK's ability to manage the NI border using "technological solutions", doesn't it. It's a pain, I was supposed to fly from Gatwick tomorrow but have been re-scheduled for Stansted. Certainly better off than the children and elderly who have to spend a night in the airport but means I have to leave in three hours instead of simply having a slightly early Friday morning.
posted by ocular shenanigans at 1:20 PM on December 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

Heres a video simulation of the Gatwick drone incident 2 July 2017 it gives some scale to the disruption in the sky.
posted by Lanark at 1:25 PM on December 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

BBC live feed reports another sighting in the last hour.
posted by edd at 1:36 PM on December 20, 2018

And right, any discussion about firmware and user solutions are basically pointless - the technology required to fly an RC anything is 30+ years old, there's nothing specific to drones that couldn't also be done with a plane that you cobble together out of foamboard and readily available RC hardware. You can make a hovering drone out of towel bars, a wii accelerometer and an arduino. It's easy to slip into the mindset that DJI and Yuneec and the like need to just prevent their hardware from flying around sensitive areas, but the location denial attack can be undertaken by pretty much any even mildly enthusiastic amateur with no dependency on centrally managed firmware or GPS capabilities at all.

If you can figure out if they're using a video downlink you could theoretically jam them (and that shit crashes _tout_ suite right after that if it isn't passively stable), but if they're just set to hover near a GPS coordinate you're going to need a more active response.
posted by Kyol at 1:37 PM on December 20, 2018 [7 favorites]

Okay, between me and Kyol, who do you really think is more likely to be behind this?
posted by Naberius at 1:38 PM on December 20, 2018 [9 favorites]

Surely the responsible party isn't some obvious suspect. No, I suspect a hidden hand is behind this. A phantom menace, if you will. We may not realize it yet, but the drone wars have already begun.
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:49 PM on December 20, 2018 [46 favorites]

A surprise to be sure, but an unwelcome one.
posted by adrianhon at 1:51 PM on December 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

A couple of nights ago I was walking home from the subway and there was a drone above me for a bit and I was so sorry I didn't have a slingshot on me. In addition to being devices that can invade your privacy and/or shut down an airport they are just hella irritating.
posted by Bella Donna at 2:36 PM on December 20, 2018 [6 favorites]

Don't most airport already have birds of prey?
posted by Gwynarra at 2:44 PM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm guessing it'd be either:

1) an intelligent-but-improperly-socialised solo actor having fun, oblivious or indifferent to their actions, somewhere between the New York Subway superfan who made replicas of train keys and snuck in to try driving trains and the dickheads who try to down airliners with lasers for lulz and mudkips,

2) extortionists; they have sent Gatwick a Bitcoin wallet address (or similar) with a demand for cash and are demonstrating their ability to make good on their threats. That would indicate a lot of confidence in that they will be able to evade capture and be a nuisance long enough to get paid. They seem to be getting away with it so far, and presumably they're calculating that it'd take long enough for Gatwick and the Sussex Police to develop the capability to stop them that hitting them in the days before Christmas could induce them to pay them to go away.

3) A foreign nation-state demonstrating/testing the capability to disrupt infrastructure. Presumably using arm's-length cutouts (possibly 2, with tacit state backing). Russia would seem more likely than China, in having tech-savvy criminal privateers who can be induced into doing patriotic jobs for the state at arm's length.
posted by acb at 2:47 PM on December 20, 2018 [5 favorites]

Extinction Rebellion were blocking roads last month. Disrupting air transport would seem a logical followup.
posted by xiw at 2:48 PM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Great. Now I'm freaking out because my wife is supposed to fly home to New Jersey from Gatwick Sunday (via Dublin on Aer Lingus if it matters). I wonder what the chances are of that flight leaving when it's supposed to, or if I should change her flight to leave from Heathrow.
posted by mollweide at 2:52 PM on December 20, 2018

Extinction Rebellion say it's not them - "We remind people that our actions are always 'above the ground' meaning we stand by our actions, are accountable and take the consequences."
posted by Catseye at 2:54 PM on December 20, 2018 [8 favorites]

Given that Gatwick airport has said that they don't plan to reopen for the "foreseeable future", it doesn't sound like it will be soon, definitely not tomorrow.

I think the July, 2017 drones were a dry run or a failed attempt. The British Airline Pilots have been warning the government about this since 2016.
posted by vacapinta at 3:17 PM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

The Sky Is Not Forever (2020). James Bond is caught up in a race against time as SPECTRE brings British airspace to a standstill. Originally billed as 'the biggest and best Bond movie ever', the film's budget had to be severely cut back after Britain's no-deal departure from the EU, with the main action relocated from a mountain hideaway in the Swiss Alps to an industrial estate in Crawley. In the climactic sequence, Bond is trapped in a queue at airport check-in while Q attempts to bring down the enemy drone with a butterfly net strapped to a pole.
posted by verstegan at 3:22 PM on December 20, 2018 [18 favorites]

Extinction Rebellion say it's not them

Of course, that doesn't rule out it being a lone-wolf sympathiser, pissed off at how moderate they are and determined to take matters into their own hands.
posted by acb at 3:22 PM on December 20, 2018

"1) an intelligent-but-improperly-socialised solo actor having fun" I'm a little surprised that they'd keep it up for so long once the police presence got big enough. I'd expect a pullback and then trying it again somewhere else in a few weeks or month. Maybe a combination of that and misdirected activism, I'm pretty sure any sensible anti-deportation or climate change activists realize that the backlash would be destructive to their cause not effective, but a loner maybe not so much.

"2) extortionists" -- it seems an awfully risky way to make money, when you could put the same effort into scamming a bunch of regular computer users with the near-certainty of no consequence. It's the kind of thing that brings the full investigative and legal might of the state against you, and the state is actually pretty good at tracking down people when they do that, and punishing them harshly. This feels more like sociopathy or politics than money. But then, there have been some crazy ransom schemes in the past, the Chowchilla kidnapping was hardly a logical path.

"3) A foreign nation-state demonstrating/testing the capability to disrupt infrastructure" Maybe? I'd wonder why Gatwick and why now, but the UK hasn't responded effectively to repeated Russian operations on their soil, so maybe they just consider them an easy target?
posted by tavella at 3:30 PM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I don't want to sound all conspiratorial, and I suppose this does, but are there pictures of this drone/these drones anywhere? I know the police are asking for people to send any in, but it's a little unusual that this major story seemingly has no artwork. Are these invisible drones or something?
posted by zachlipton at 3:40 PM on December 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

I read earlier today that they were trying to keep pictures of the drones off of media to avoid copycats?
posted by stillmoving at 3:45 PM on December 20, 2018

we all know how this goes: soon as you publish pictures of the drone, somebody on twitter is gonna be like "actually the drone is kinda hot" and then there's erotic fan fiction and tumblr pages and next thing you know Amanda Palmer is writing a goddamn poem about it
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:50 PM on December 20, 2018 [20 favorites]

"Oh, sorry, turns out they were some shopping bags flying on the wind, we didn't need to shut down after all" does not go well for anybody involved.
posted by Kyol at 3:54 PM on December 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

1) Without geofencing it's too damn easy to attack planes and other soft targets using drones;
2) It's too damn easy to defeat geofencing, or to just build your own drones;
Conclusion: drones will end up being treated like some pharmaceutical and explosive precursor chemicals: legal but highly suspicious.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:58 PM on December 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

Ok, oooor we make falconry a thing again

Which is actually a pretty great silver lining

Ooooh at night you could have owls!
posted by schadenfrau at 4:07 PM on December 20, 2018 [8 favorites]

Like if “falconer” becomes a thing you can be again that ain’t all bad
posted by schadenfrau at 4:08 PM on December 20, 2018 [6 favorites]

Drones by definition have computers and radios. Ultimately, the answer may be to have infrastructure and regulation. Cover the area with transponders (possibly merged with the 5G/6G network and/or AGPS), and have all legal drones have a radio that communicated with these, sending its registration and position. The base stations would also broadcast geofences and restrictions in the nearby area, which the drone would heed. If a drone doesn't heed those, it'd be easy enough to track down the owner and prosecute them, and if a drone doesn't comply with the standards, it'd get picked up and traced sooner or later.

The alternatives are either banning private drones (or treating drone licences whose availability is more like security clearances than driving licences/dog registrations) or allowing random assholes to keep assholing with impunity.
posted by acb at 4:16 PM on December 20, 2018

Well it clearly isn't being that easy to track down and prosecute them...
posted by edd at 4:24 PM on December 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

I've suspected for a few years that nuisance drones are going to inspire regulation in the same way that dirty spark-gap radios inspired international regulation of commercial and amateur radio. A large part of that includes mandatory identification.

But, anyone with the proper technical know-how can jury-rig their own radio system or piggy-back on licensed bandwidth for consumer devices. While licensing might stop amateur yahoos from buzzing bird sanctuaries or dropping their drone into Old Faithful, it probably won't do much for criminal use of drones. We're already living in a future with drone operators supporting smuggling operations and even armed robbery.
posted by GenderNullPointerException at 4:30 PM on December 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

Surely it's being done by Heathrow?

There are adverts all around here (west London) for "A new runway at Gatwick, not at heathrow"
So clearly a degree of competition between them.
Also, Heathrow have been pretty dodgy about telling a lot of lies about the amount of support they have, how quiet their planes are (and how they'll be even quieter if there is another runway etc...
Pretty sure they're not above flying some drones about.

That sais as an "expert" in UK transport infrastructure I've long suggested that the most effective terrorism would be not blowing up a random bus which is horrific, but difficult to do. It's shutting down the already fragile infrastructure. You would get A TON more attention to your cause (without the vilification that comes from killing people) by driving around the outskirts of London chucking rolls of chicken wire on the railway tracks.
You could pretty much get the UK's rail network ground to a halt for the foreseeable future this way.

This is the same thing but with an airport.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:37 PM on December 20, 2018 [4 favorites]

Where's Johnny English when you need him?
posted by Coaticass at 4:41 PM on December 20, 2018

Well it clearly isn't being that easy to track down and prosecute them...

Once the infrastructure's in place, and there are many more drones and control systems, it may be. Much in the way that one can't get away with driving without a licence/number plates/a roadworthy vehicle for any length of time, getting away with flying a jerry-rigged rogue drone could become tougher.
posted by acb at 4:43 PM on December 20, 2018

Drones aren't limited to roads the way cars are. imagine somebody in a 15 story tower flying an unregistered drone off of their balcony. Unless you caught it on video at exactly the right time, you would never know which balcony it was.
posted by Megafly at 4:52 PM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

There are counter-drone systems being developed, but none of the various technologies are quite there yet. This month's issue of The Atlantic has an article which is apropos.
posted by pleasant_confusion at 5:03 PM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yeah, the problem is the command and control mechanisms are both broadcast. Thankfully they're currently (mostly) line of sight, but the RC transmitter can be anywhere within a mile or so of the drone without needing special low frequency gear that gets you significantly further control range. There are limitations, but if you're doing it for area denial, those limitations aren't really that strong. (Mainly that 2.4ghz control fades rapidly through buildings and trees, but if you're doing it with criminal intent, you just run a cord to an unobtrusive antenna sticking out a window.) And since it's 2.4ghz, there's a lot of noise in the signal - every wifi radio and microwave in the world is screaming at that frequency so you can't just send out the Ofcom vans looking for a rogue transmitter.

If they're depending on a video feed to fly it interactively, again, you can't locate the pilot receiving a 5.8ghz signal very readily. But if they set it up as a fully autonomous flight using received GPS and just sent it on its merry way flying at treetop height from a mile or two away from the area you want to deny access to? They've legged it well before it became a threat. Assuming they didn't just launch it from the roof of a building where nobody would notice anyway.

And again, I highlight that all of this can be done without needing it to be even remotely specialist gear. The fully autonomous flight is actually almost the least specialized, that's just a laptop and some freely available software, the flying hardware is literally just that: hardware. It might not be as advanced or stable as some of the modern platforms, but the initial GPS navigated autonomous flights were low tech and off the shelf hardware. It's certainly easier to buy a DJI and be a goddamn idiot, don't get me wrong, but there really isn't much of a technological hurdle to any sufficiently motivated asshole.

I'm actually sort of surprised the counter-denial systems aren't further along, it seems like a relatively straightforward problem. Ok, a fully automated drone stopping system might be a bit out there - I'm not sure the really small brushless ones have enough radar surface area to amount to much, but once you have eyes on the dang thing, bring out the laser cannons and *zorch*. Sure, you might not want to do that over a crowded public event, but an airfield is another matter entirely.

(Next up, drones hovering inconveniently in the approach path over private property. "Sorry we dropped a 10lb lump of flaming carbon fiber and lithium on your roof, but y'see...")
posted by Kyol at 6:07 PM on December 20, 2018 [8 favorites]

schadenfrau: "Like if “falconer” becomes a thing you can be again that ain’t all bad"

Not according to Yeats.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:46 PM on December 20, 2018 [10 favorites]

Okay, between me and Kyol, who do you really think is more likely to be behind this?

I vote Kyol.

birds of prey

I miss rtha. :(
posted by bendy at 8:41 PM on December 20, 2018 [8 favorites]

you just run a cord to an unobtrusive antenna sticking out a window.

Or with the equivalent of a usb dongle cell-phone modem.

Set it up, leave the country, and activate it and control it remotely.
posted by sebastienbailard at 9:08 PM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the finest in Very Short Range air defense, the Nächstbereichschutzsystem MANTIS
posted by mikelieman at 10:09 PM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Seems they're reopening today at least to some extent. I don't see any word they took out the drone or caught anyone yet.
posted by edd at 11:35 PM on December 20, 2018

> Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the finest in Very Short Range air defense, the Nächstbereichschutzsystem MANTIS

I thought Patriot missiles were the best for taking down drones.
posted by farlukar at 1:41 AM on December 21, 2018

I have lots of opinions on this (I study drones in disaster response and aid for a living) and little time to summarize, but....

1. Anti-drone birds of prey don’t work and I hate the idea and I hate hearing about them and it never ends. The experiment was cancelled a while ago because it’s dumb and bad. More importantly: it’s animal cruelty. I wrote a Slate piece on this back in 2015 and interviewed some real-deal falconers who were all totally horrified by the idea. They believed it was a good way to gravely injure their birds, which they wanted nothing to do with. (Interestingly, falconers do love using drones to train birds, but in such a way that the bird never gets close to it - they dangle bait from the drone instead).

2. Lots of smart people are working very hard on remote drone ID or “license plate” systems, and have been for years, but it’s....difficult. I have heard from a very reliable source that the new DJI Aeroscope system works quite well - but only for certain affiliated models. I also want to reiterate that building a drone is stupid easy, and it’s also stupid easy to disable geofences from models that offer them.

3. From my POV, the lack of drone ID is a particularly huge issue for aid workers who want to use them to facilitate disaster mapping and data collection in active conflict areas. It’s also a unresolved IHL issue. (I’ve written a paper on this I’m waiting to hear back on).

4. Last I checked - I’m technically on vacation, but - my drone industry colleagues are wondering if this is an action by an environmental group or something of that nature. Certainly I think this shows we should be paying more attention to super fucking annoying uses of consumer drones, instead of fixating on deadly but much more tricky consumer drone attacks.
posted by faineg at 2:23 AM on December 21, 2018 [18 favorites]

Patriot missiles are presumably not very short range even if they're more effective, but they'd also be very unpopular over urban areas in peacetime.

Better to be very short range and have any fallout over the relatively empty and more controlled area of the airport?
posted by edd at 2:29 AM on December 21, 2018

Also the cost!
posted by edd at 2:37 AM on December 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

Seems they're reopening today at least to some extent. I don't see any word they took out the drone or caught anyone yet.

I'm wondering if the only difference between today and yesterday is that it's too windy for drones to fly today, or if they do have other operating plans which have mitigated the risk, including, I guess, the army involvement.
posted by ambrosen at 3:08 AM on December 21, 2018

Theoretically, by how much could an anti-aircraft missile system be miniaturised? Could you have soda-water-sized Patriot batteries for taking down drones?
posted by acb at 3:23 AM on December 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

High pressure water jets does sound like the safest way to get drones out of the air, considering the jets will presumably disperse bettor falling to ground.

That still leaves the upset drone falling from a height, but I guess it's safer than nothing.
posted by ambrosen at 3:53 AM on December 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

Surely the biggest problem is getting to the drone in the first place? If you have the equipment to take it out, you need to get that equipment to within an effective distance before you can use it. Neither water jets or spears would be of any use if the drone's five miles in the other direction.

Armchair suggestion 1: station teams of six drones around the perimeter of the airport. My thinking is this: a team of police drones could close in on a nuisance drone and take it down with nets, or just plain crash into it. For each axis (x,y, and z), you'd have a pair of drones closing in on the enemy drone in a pincer movement. Would that not work?

Armchair suggestion 2: Drone rugby.
posted by popcassady at 4:10 AM on December 21, 2018 [2 favorites]

That sais as an "expert" in UK transport infrastructure I've long suggested that the most effective terrorism would be not blowing up a random bus which is horrific, but difficult to do. It's shutting down the already fragile infrastructure.

This time: drones. Next time: 1 inch of snow, or planned rail maintenance.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:11 AM on December 21, 2018 [7 favorites]

Neither water jets or spears would be of any use if the drone's five miles in the other direction.

If it's five miles in the other direction it's no longer a problem for your airport or whatever.
posted by edd at 4:58 AM on December 21, 2018

And yeah, in the short term it seems like counter-drone drones would be easiest to deploy, practically if not legally. I'd hate to force the FOD walk, but given how little success they're having finding the culprits, eh? Drone racers hit each other all the dang time, hitting a big target is basically what those guys practice for. A little money thrown at the military industrial complex types and something with better terminal guidance could probably be developed so they don't need to hire the local Red Bull addict. But that only helps the area denial attack over open fields, you still sort of have a problem over houses and with anybody whose goal is a bit more IED-y. (That said, the local red bull addict would probably do it pro bono with old junk hardware. They haaaaaaate these assholes because it threatens something that's otherwise fairly harmless fun with crippling legislation.)

And what, doesn't everybody ponder vulnerabilities? It's a great way to terrify yourself. Social media seems to be having fun with it, anyway...
posted by Kyol at 6:33 AM on December 21, 2018 [3 favorites]

London's Gatwick airport reopens after mystery drone saboteur sows chaos (Toby Melville for Reuters, Dec. 20, 2018)

GATWICK, England (Reuters) - London’s Gatwick Airport reopened on Friday after a mystery saboteur wrought 36 hours of travel chaos for more than 100,000 Christmas travelers by using drones to play cat-and-mouse with police snipers and the army.
...
Britain deployed unidentified military technology to guard the airport against what Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said were thought to be several drones.

Not a lot of meat in this story.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:53 AM on December 21, 2018

THE FUCKING DRONE IS BACK
- Guardian Technology Editor trying to get out of Gatwick today.
posted by vacapinta at 9:30 AM on December 21, 2018 [3 favorites]

London's Gatwick airport reopens after mystery drone saboteur sows chaos (Toby Melville for Reuters, Dec. 20, 2018)

…and closes again.

Flights at Gatwick suspended again due to new "suspected drone sighting", spokesman says
posted by popcassady at 9:30 AM on December 21, 2018

If you are interested in this stuff, the search term you want is "counter UAS". There are a variety of systems, including kinetic and non-kinetic (electronic warfare, mostly) systems.

It is shaping up to be one of 2019's "shut up and take my money" defense priorities, probably just as much in the UK as anywhere else.
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:09 AM on December 21, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm glad we switched my wife's Sunday flight to Heathrow. This is going to mess things up even if the airport is open by then.
posted by mollweide at 10:30 AM on December 21, 2018

EndsOfInvention: "This time: drones. Next time: 1 inch of snow, or planned rail maintenance."

Sure, if it's the wrong kind of snow.
posted by Chrysostom at 5:08 PM on December 21, 2018 [3 favorites]

They caught em :/
posted by AnhydrousLove at 5:54 PM on December 21, 2018

I'm surprised nobody has suggested lasers for taking these things down.
posted by nnethercote at 1:02 AM on December 22, 2018

The suspects are two locals, a man and a woman in their late 40s/early 50s. Not the typical demographic for pranksters, militants or maladjusted enthusiasts. Assuming that they end up charged, rather than found to have had nothing to do with it, I wonder what their story could be. A cunning plan, that couldn't possibly go wrong, to pay off some debts and retire in style to the Bahamas, or something more bizarre?
posted by acb at 10:09 AM on December 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

My money is on “they got drunk and it was fun.”
posted by schadenfrau at 10:32 AM on December 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

"Locals playing the fool" is the best possible outcome, really.
posted by Frowner at 10:44 AM on December 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

Never underestimate the animosity living near an airport which is getting busier can induce in some people.
posted by jamjam at 11:04 AM on December 22, 2018 [3 favorites]

My money is on “they got drunk and it was fun.”

That is a LONG time to be drunk for. My vote is "pissed off at the noise" which is ironic since during the shut-down they extended the flying hours for other airports making it worse for residents near them.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 12:18 PM on December 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

My vote is "pissed off at the noise" which is ironic since during the shut-down they extended the flying hours for other airports making it worse for residents near them.

As they say, the difference between Heaven and Hell is which end of the pitchfork you're on. Perhaps they had enough of a failure of imagination to discount the possibility that they would end up on the wrong end, instead believing themselves entitled to be the ones wielding it?

Heavy-handed Brexit metaphor is heavy-handed.
posted by acb at 4:14 PM on December 22, 2018

This problem is just going to get worse. Imagine a swarm of drones swooping in and swooping out, then being replaced by the next swarm. In between attacks each drone would park itself somewhere out of the way, on a rooftop or something. I don't know how long drone batteries last for, but I bet someone has / is working on an autonomous charging station so their drones could keep flying their missions indefinitely.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:13 PM on December 22, 2018

It would be pretty bleeding edge but within the realm of possibility right now for someone to build a drone that could:

- use onboard logic and sensors to locate and loiter around a predetermined target without depending on gps or any other external signal
- recognize attempts to attack it and take evasive action
- find any regular power distribution line and clamp an inductive charging system around it to top up the battery as needed

With today's technology this would be an impressive feat for someone to put together and a lot of the parts would be expensive, but it's only going to get easier and cheaper.
posted by contraption at 7:04 PM on December 22, 2018

I'm surprised nobody has suggested lasers for taking these things down.

It's not out of the realm of possibility, but you'd need a seriously powerful laser. Probably a small version of the ones designed for ABM use or something. Hitting a drone from the bottom or side, you'd need to be putting a lot of power to kill it in a reasonably short amount of time. They're pretty robust when it comes to heating, at least until you got up to the melting point of the plastics I suppose. I think you'd be better off putting the same power into the RF spectrum and interfering with the control channel, and going for at least a forced-RTB / mission kill (most systems have an automatic RTB or at least loiter-in-place when they lose signal).

In contrast, any mechanical disruption to one (in the case of a quadcopter design) prop will give you a pretty reliable kill. Entangling nets are easy and low tech, so I'd imagine that's where the development is likely to be. I suspect even some types of monofilament can tangle it up, and you can have another drone just drag that around in its own downdraft and let it get pulled into the target drone's props by flying above it.

I don't know if drone-on-drone simulated combat is a thing for hobbyists yet, but when it does, the simulated kill should probably be by getting your drone directly above the enemy one, since that'd be the position it's easiest to drop an entangling device from. Sort of equivalent to getting in behind a fighter aircraft in a dogfight with guns.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:08 PM on December 22, 2018

The local couple have been released without charge, and are no longer considered to be suspects. Looks like it's back to square one.
posted by acb at 5:00 AM on December 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

Didn't stop the Daily Mail posting their photo on the front page and calling them "morons". I hope they sue.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 6:10 AM on December 23, 2018 [7 favorites]

I could see anyone playing the fool for an afternoon, but I could just not see what looked like a fairly stable middle-aged couple getting up the next day and deciding to do it again for fun when so much trouble was clearly aimed at them. I was wondering if the later drone appearances were copycats or paranoia, but instead it was just entirely the wrong people.
posted by tavella at 6:24 AM on December 23, 2018

With today's technology this would be an impressive feat for someone to put together and a lot of the parts would be expensive, but it's only going to get easier and cheaper.

The latest thing to be automated: asymmetric guerilla warfare.

The drones could be paradropped behind enemy lines or smuggled in by mules and could go to work, leeching electricity, disrupting infrastructure and falling back. Perhaps eventually they'll get rid of the paradrops and mules and have artificially intelligent hobo drones which make their way to their destination by any which way, attaching themselves like limpets to lorries heading in the right direction.
posted by acb at 6:34 AM on December 23, 2018

He said there was no available footage of the drones and police were relying on witness accounts.
He added there was "always a possibility that there may not have been any genuine drone activity in the first place", but they were working on a range of information from members of the public, police officers and staff working at Gatwick who had reported otherwise.

whoops.
posted by Kyol at 9:13 AM on December 23, 2018 [3 favorites]

That reminds me of my favourite JFK assassination conspiracy theory: that Kennedy's head spontaneously exploded (a rare, but not impossible, phenomenon), and faced with the prospect of mass panic as the population realise that they live in an absurd universe in which the President's head can spontaneously explode in the middle of a parade, they quickly found a suitable misfit, framed him, and had him shot before the truth could come out.
posted by acb at 10:11 AM on December 23, 2018 [6 favorites]

This is a highly unsatisfactory conclusion.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:07 PM on December 23, 2018

It would be so wonderful if this turned out to be mass hysteria.
posted by jamjam at 5:37 PM on December 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

Tired: phoning in bomb threats to get out of school exams
Wired: phoning in drone threats to get out of going home for Christmas
posted by Kadin2048 at 5:40 PM on December 23, 2018 [4 favorites]

glonous keming: "What if there is no human operator?"

I posited this "terrorist" attack here at some point when cheap autonomous drones were just hitting the market. Something like set up a bunch of drones near airports all programmed to do a drunkard walks circle of the airport starting at a preplanned time. For less money than a new F-150 you could cripple a countries air infrastructure for days, maybe even weeks.
posted by Mitheral at 7:08 PM on December 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

Heathrow airport 'drone sighting' leads to brief runway closure.
posted by rory at 1:31 PM on January 8, 2019