Gatwick drones: Two arrested over flight disruption

Re:Gatwick drones: Two arrested over flight disruption by berkut on Saturday December 22, 2018 @04:00AM (#18739730)

If it's being controlled with a controller, yes, although at 2.4 Ghz, they frequency-hop, and jamming the entire spectrum close to loads of aircraft (even if grounded) and a terminal with wifi etc is likely to cause some collateral disruption. Gatwick's also surrounded by loads of businesses (although at night they'd mostly be closed).

However, if it's not a commercial one or has been modified, it could be using waypoints so jamming the communications wouldn't do anything useful in that case.

Jamming GPS is more problematic, I'm not sure how localised that could be, if it can't be it's unlikely they can do this as so much stuff relies on it these days (even aircraft, although DME/VOR waypoints are still used).

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Re:Gatwick drones: Two arrested over flight disruption by kortilla on Saturday December 22, 2018 @04:26AM (#18739799)

Aircraft do not rely on GPS precisely because it’s so easy to jam. It’s only a convenience.

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Re:Gatwick drones: Two arrested over flight disruption by nippoo on Saturday December 22, 2018 @05:00AM (#18739924)

This is increasingly untrue. RNAV/PNAV approaches are increasingly being flown - which are exclusively satellite-based navigation, and, at smaller airports, “traditional” approaches based on ground instrumentation are being phased out due to cost and inflexibility... potentially leaving pilots stranded in bad weather conditions if GPS fails.

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Re:Gatwick drones: Two arrested over flight disruption by CydeWeys on Saturday December 22, 2018 @10:48AM (#18741010)

They're definitely less safe without it though.

Also, I don't know about the UK's laws, but any sort of radiofrequency jamming is illegal in the US except in extremely extenuating circumstances (like war) that I don't think a roving drone would fall under.

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Re:Gatwick drones: Two arrested over flight disruption by WalterBright on Saturday December 22, 2018 @04:49AM (#18739892)

Wouldn't a directional antenna aimed at it minimize such collateral interference?

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Re:Gatwick drones: Two arrested over flight disruption by jsjohnst on Saturday December 22, 2018 @08:21AM (#18740464)

Yes.

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