TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
London’s Gatwick airport halts flights on reports of drones
Change Size
The airport and local police are investigating the incident, Gatwick said in a statement on its twitter account. (Bloomberg/File)
L
ondon’s Gatwick airport shut down operations Wednesday night after reports of two drones flying over the airfield, a modern-day menace that the aviation industry is struggling to manage.
The airport and local police are investigating the incident, Gatwick said in a statement on its twitter account. The closure led to the diversion of more than two dozen incoming flights, according to flight-tracking service Flightradar24.
— Gatwick Airport LGW (@Gatwick_Airport) December 20, 2018
Unmanned aerial vehicles and laser pointers are increasingly becoming a safety threat for aircraft, prompting regulators to come up with new rules against operating the devices near airfields. Earlier this year, airspace around Wellington, New Zealand, was closed for 30 minutes after a drone was spotted flying extremely close to the runway. In 2016, Dubai International Airport was closed temporarily.
Different birds
“In the past, trying to skirt around birds was hard enough and now you’ve got a different kind of bird made out of metal or plastic,” said Mohshin Aziz, an aviation analyst at Maybank Investment Bank Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. “A drone strike is far, far more damaging than a bird strike.”
Read also: Hello convenience, goodbye lines: The future of flying almost lands in Asia
Gatwick is allowed to operate a limited number of services at night, according to its website. On average, the airfield has 45 to 50 flights a night in the summer and 18 to 20 in the winter, it said. London is served by about half a dozen airports.
Last week, Grupo Aeromexico SAB said it’s investigating whether a drone slammed into a Boeing Co. 737 aircraft as the plane approached Tijuana, Mexico. The jet sustained damage to its nose but landed safely.
While most nations prohibit drones flying in pathways reserved for airliners, the millions of small consumer devices that have been purchased around the world can’t be tracked on radar. That makes it difficult for authorities to enforce the rules. In addition, many users don’t know the restrictions -- or don’t follow them.
