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LONDON — The British police and military forces were working on Wednesday to upgrade the security of airspace around London Heathrow Airport, the busiest in Europe, after drone sightings briefly interrupted service there Tuesday evening.
The sightings, which prompted the airport to halt flight departures for about an hour, came less than three weeks after Gatwick, Britain’s second-busiest airport, was shut down for parts of three days because of drone sightings. Heathrow reported on Wednesday that operations were normal.
Heathrow, west of London, is Europe’s busiest airport. Neil Hall/Reuters
The latest airport closing demonstrates how vulnerable the air transport system is to relatively low-cost interference, or even just the threat of it. Aviation officials fear that a drone could be sucked into a jet engine and disable it, as has happened with birds.
The person or people behind the Gatwick closing of Dec. 19 to 21, at the height of the holiday travel season, have not been caught.
Flights at Heathrow are operating normally. Our focus is always the safety of our passengers and colleagues and we apologise to those passengers whose journeys have been unfairly affected this evening.
— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) January 8, 2019
“We are deploying significant resources — both in terms of officers and equipment — to monitor the airspace around Heathrow and to quickly detect and disrupt any illegal drone activity,” Cmdr. Stuart Cundy of the Metropolitan Police said in a statement late Tuesday. “Following today’s sighting, military assistance has been implemented to support us.”
Some of the anti-drone practices they will use stem from lessons learned at Gatwick, he said. But he declined to elaborate, adding,
“We will not be discussing in any further detail the range of tactics available to us as this would only serve to potentially undermine their effectiveness.”
Chris Grayling, Britain’s transport secretary, said Tuesday night that the military would deploy the same equipment at Heathrow that it had used at Gatwick, “should it prove necessary,” but he, too, declined to elaborate. He said he had spoken to the home and defense secretaries and was in contact with Heathrow officials.
Anti-drone proposals have included jamming the devices’ navigation signals, cannon that fire small nets to ensnare drones, snipers to shoot them, and even eagles trained to bring them down.
Putting to rest any suspicion that the sightings at Heathrow, about 15 miles west of central London, were false alarms, Commander Cundy said, “Police officers were amongst those who saw the drone and a full criminal investigation has been launched.”
Chris Grayling, Britain’s transport secretary, said Tuesday night that the military would deploy the same equipment at Heathrow that it had used at Gatwick, “should it prove necessary,” but he, too, declined to elaborate. He said he had spoken to the home and defense secretaries and was in contact with Heathrow officials.
Anti-drone proposals have included jamming the devices’ navigation signals, cannon that fire small nets to ensnare drones, snipers to shoot them, and even eagles trained to bring them down.
Putting to rest any suspicion that the sightings at Heathrow, about 15 miles west of central London, were false alarms, Commander Cundy said, “Police officers were amongst those who saw the drone and a full criminal investigation has been launched.”
The Gatwick closing started on the evening of Dec. 19. The airport reopened for short periods the next day, only to be shut down again after fresh sightings. The closings finally ended on the morning of Dec. 21.
In all, the airport was out of action for more than 30 hours, and the travel of about 140,000 people was disrupted.
Palko Karasz contributed reporting.
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