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Gatwick drone ‘attack’ could have been inside job, say police
- Airport closed for more than a day in December, causing travel chaos, after reports of drone sightings
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The drone sightings that brought Gatwick airport to a standstill in December could have been an “inside job”, according to police, who said the perpetrator may have been operating the drone from inside the airport.
Sussex police told BBC’s Panorama programme that the fact an insider may have been behind the incidents was “treated as a credible line of inquiry from the earliest stages of the police response”.
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Gatwick’s chief operating officer, Chris Woodroofe, believes the perpetrator was familiar with the airport’s operational procedures and had a clear view of the runway or possibly infiltrated its communication network.
“It was clear that the drone operators had a link into what was going on at the airport,” he told Panorama, in his first interview since the incident.
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He said the culprit carefully picked a drone that would remain undetected by the airport’s DJI Aeroscope detection system being tested at the time.
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