Old Dec 20, 2018, 5:24 am
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Travelling to of from London Gatwick 21 December 2018
All LGW services operated on Friday with 2 exceptions (BA2758/0 to AMS and back; BA2938/9 EDI and back). Many flights were heavily delayed.
List of inbound BA diversions from latest closure is in post 463
Incomplete list of inbound cancellations for Friday 21 December is here in post 298.

Current customer guidelines in this post 344 (you can rebook free of charge to 5 January and reroute via LHR/LCY). Try rebooking via the App if you can, otherwise you need to telephone BA.

Background
Gatwick Airport was closed at 21:03 on Wednesday 19 December following reports of drones flying over the airfield. Sightings have continued throughout Thursday 20 December requiring the airport to remain closed. Gatwick Airport advising all passengers to check the status of their flights before travelling to the airport. Gatwick airport was further closed on Friday 21 December from 17:00 until 18:25 at which time normal operations resumed after suspected drone sightings.

Previous updates
Current list of cancelled and diverted services
Post 96 and Post 132 and Post 184
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LGW closed due to drone activity

Old Dec 23, 2018, 4:59 pm
  #631  
 
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Well the press review on the news channels tonight has a slightly different spin.

Last night it was two people in the firing line, tonight the police, DoT and Gatwick Airport Ltd are all being made to look fairly incompetent.
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Old Dec 23, 2018, 5:29 pm
  #632  
 
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I'm sorry, but in this day and age I cannot accept that there is NO video footage or photography of these drones. The worlds media with all sorts of cameras and lenses were camped out at Gatwick for two days, not to mention dozens of enthusiast photographers. The only reason none of them got any footage was because there were no drones.

A friend of mine belongs to a drone racing club, these things fly at incredible speeds and can twist and turn on a dime! one such group offered to take down the drone, they were willing to encircle the airport and launch a simultaneous attack when it was spotted, but were dismissed. I wonder why?

I'll tell you why, because it never happened. There's a much bigger story here that we're not being told.
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Old Dec 24, 2018, 1:07 am
  #633  
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Originally Posted by mdj1
A friend of mine belongs to a drone racing club, these things fly at incredible speeds and can twist and turn on a dime! one such group offered to take down the drone, they were willing to encircle the airport and launch a simultaneous attack when it was spotted, but were dismissed. I wonder why?
Wait, what? They were going to take down the drone with...more drones?
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Old Dec 24, 2018, 2:13 am
  #634  
 
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Originally Posted by omk298
The police deserve that beating. As far as I can tell they've arrested some people who happened to be nearby and released their names to the press. All in an effort to look like they aren't literally clueless.
I am not sure it was the police that released the names, but I am ready to be corrected on that. And as for walking around looking clueless, what else could they do if they are asked to investigate a crime that was not there? They have recovered one damaged drone from the airport perimeter. So there could have been an original sighting followed by many 'mistakes'.
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Old Dec 24, 2018, 3:26 am
  #635  
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Originally Posted by airmanofthequeen
Det Ch Supt Jason Tingley said it was "a working assumption" the device could be connected to their investigation, but officers were keeping "an open mind"."We are also going through many reports of sightings of drone activity over the last few days," he said."We are meticulously going through that information to see if that produces any other further lines of inquiry, and also where we may focus our efforts in terms of house-to-house inquiries, CCTV footage, and any other information that will help us work through this investigation."He added there was "always a possibility that there may not have been any genuine drone activity in the first place"

Oh dear. This could get embarrassing for a few people....

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-46665615
Maybe Ch Supt Tingley should talk to Superintendent Justin Burtenshaw :-

"With pressure increasing to find the perpetrator, Superintendent Justin Burtenshaw, the airport's policing commander, said: 'Each time we believe we get close to the operator, the drone disappears; when we look to reopen the airfield, the drone reappears. I'm absolutely convinced it's a deliberate act to disrupt Gatwick Airport'. "
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Old Dec 24, 2018, 4:07 am
  #636  
 
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Originally Posted by DaveS
I am not sure it was the police that released the names, but I am ready to be corrected on that. And as for walking around looking clueless, what else could they do if they are asked to investigate a crime that was not there? They have recovered one damaged drone from the airport perimeter. So there could have been an original sighting followed by many 'mistakes'.
I'm sure the police didn't officially release the names, but I'd be very surprised if the names didn't come from the police in some capacity.

And if they have no evidence of any crime, say so. If they don't know what's going on, find out. Arresting random people and screwing up their lives isn't helpful to anyone.
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Old Dec 24, 2018, 5:47 am
  #637  
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You know what I think? I think it was a bunch of UFOs buzzing the airport, checking out an incredibly primitive means of transportation. On the other hand, it could have been Santa too!
​​​​​​
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Old Dec 24, 2018, 6:05 am
  #638  
 
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Too early for Santa surely? Unless there was some breakdown in communications with the Elves.
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Old Dec 24, 2018, 6:40 am
  #639  
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Originally Posted by anyuser
Too early for Santa surely? Unless there was some breakdown in communications with the Elves.
Maybe he was doing a TP run before his big RTW? If it was an ex-EU, I can understand giving himself an extra day or two.
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Old Dec 24, 2018, 7:09 am
  #640  
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Old Dec 24, 2018, 8:28 am
  #641  
 
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Given Santa’s age, he might’ve been confused about the dates.

Merry christmas all!
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Old Dec 24, 2018, 9:00 am
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BBC now reporting that the “possibly no drones” report may be down to miscommunication on the part of the police.
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Old Dec 24, 2018, 10:11 am
  #643  
 
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Originally Posted by kanderson1965
BBC now reporting that the “possibly no drones” report may be down to miscommunication on the part of the police.
Heading rapidly into Christmas cheer here so I may stop making sense soon.

The copper involved will get something of a kicking at a policy level and probably feel bad about being ‘off message’ and yet... he’s right. It’s really good Investigation practice to be open to the possibility that it (whatever it was) never happened and it’s all a misunderstanding.
That said there so seem to be a lot of independent drone witnesses. That said, and I’m struck by the lack of research on it, in my experience eyewitnesses are terrible with flying things.
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Old Dec 24, 2018, 10:19 am
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The correct investigative strategy with suspects in a crime like this without direct evidence of their involvement would be to put them under surveillance. Of course if after 24 hours the surveillance team caught them red handed you’ve got your culprits. HOWEVER hindsight is great, had the airport remained closed for 24 hours before the police
caught their “man” they’d be pilloried for not acting quicker and over 100,000 more passengers would have been disrupted. There were clearly reasonable
grounds to arrest and investigate the incident.
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Old Dec 24, 2018, 12:51 pm
  #645  
 
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Oh we three Police of Sussex are
Bearing binoculars we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Following yonder Drone

O Drone of wonder, Drone of night
Drone with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light
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