Well, what an entertaining Christmas it's been. The local pantomime was surpassed by the quality of the entertainment at Gatwick Airport this Christmas.
It started with an announcement that all flights in and out of Gatwick were suspended due to drone sightings over the runway. As the media arrived at the airport en mass, we waited and waited for photographic evidence. A grainy image of a drone appeared but failed to show a reference point proving it was at Gatwick. The airport was closed for 36 hours, stranding thousands of passengers and creating panic among the drone industry.
Then a breakthrough, the police arrested two people only to release them 24 hours later, without charge...... still no evidence of a drone.
Gatwick then rushed to get anti-drone tech flown in from Israel only for the police to admit that there may not have been a drone seen after all. by now it was too late, the damage had been done. The public perception of drones was at an all time low. We're hated by most people, despite the fact that the Gatwick pantomime could be a crock of something smelly.
Cover up?
Speculation abounds that the whole incident could be a cover up for something more sinister but I guess we'll probably never get to hear the truth.
In a strange twist, just a few days later, Gatwick sold it's majority share holding to a French company. Could this be linked in some way?
What is clear is that the whole situation was a farce.
"It's behind you," shouts one drone user
"Oh no it isn't," shouts another
The drone community needs to get together in protest of the way in which drones have been treated, without proof or just cause. If this incident gets swept under the carpet, we can be sure that the drone industry will suffer hugely.
Shame on Gatwick and a pathetic performance by the police.
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