Drone Crash Due To GPS Interference In U.K. Raises Safety Questions

The source of the interference has not been identified. It may have come from a GPS jammer. Sold as ‘personal privacy devices’ these can be easily obtained on the internet for $30. These are legal to own, but illegal to operate in the U.K.
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A one-off drone crash in the U.K. causing no casualties may not seem like a big deal. But some may see it as a sign of things to come.

www.forbes.com...

The crashed survey drone weighed about 25 pounds, enough to seriously injury anyone it hit.

I had a drone spy on me sunbathing last week. When I gave it the finger with both hands and some enthusiasm it immediately turned at right angles. The conversation turned to ways to bring them down and I briefly thought of looking for the pilot to give him a slap.

Pilots using them offensively create problems for pilots using them constructively or for fun.

A sign of things to come? Watch this space.

i dont understand how it all went so wrong. needs some better software and foresight. me aswell

a reply to: TheScale

I'm told the latest consumer drones won't even take off in a residential area unless the GPS is disabled. Safety improvements are being made but it's all fallible, then, gravity, it's going to come down somewhere.

Man, where was this jammer when i had some goon buzzing his drone back and forth outside my home office window yesterday..?



Was trying to ping elastic bands at the props, but no good.

originally posted by: RitualReality
Man, where was this jammer when i had some goon buzzing his drone back and forth outside my home office window yesterday..?

Was trying to ping elastic bands at the props, but no good.

Buy a pellet gun

I operate drones fairly regularly as part of my job and the attitude of the general public about these machines never made any sense to me. If a drone is in the air and it’s within sight this doesn’t mean it’s looking at you, more than likely it’s doing something completely unrelated to anything you’re doing. These things don’t carry Keyhole or Misty optics almost all have wide angle lenses meant to capture large areas not fine detail.

Face it, you’re probably not important enough for anyone to care what you’re up to & if you were they wouldn’t use a loud attention getting glorified toy to accomplish the task.

originally posted by: Vector99

originally posted by: RitualReality
Man, where was this jammer when i had some goon buzzing his drone back and forth outside my home office window yesterday..?

Was trying to ping elastic bands at the props, but no good.

Buy a pellet gun

I'm going to find some pellet moulds for my air rifles. Not for use on drones necessarily, just so I can make more ammo when I run out eventually. Not sure how to make bbs, maybe a shot size would work, or small bearings.

a reply to: PhantomTwo

I diasgree about the zoom and hi-res capability of today's drones.

As an example, take this video below.

The 'operator' boasts about the zoom capability of his drone, zooming in to take clear images.

He is deliberately using his drone to annoy the security staff, who had cause to remove him from the premesis three times for tresspass. Police were called because of his tresspass.

Please Note: the following video contains swearing and inflamatory language.

flying drone to annoy security

And this person hold a professional UK drone licence, and runs a drone video business.

Hmm.

I have added the link to start the video at a 'drone zoom' capability example.

It's worth watching the full video for context and as how site security had to have him removed three times for trespass.

Break stupid laws, win stupid prizes....

I just bought a drone. I was trying it out a the local park, when the Police showed up. They had a complaint about a "pedophile" taking pictures of children with a drone. I hit the return button on my controller and showed that I didn't even have the camera attached to it. The cop went over and bitched out the woman that called him.

a reply to: GrumpyPants

It depends on what they're being used for though. A private drone may have a decent camera that can zoom in, where a commercial drone doesn't want that, and wants to see a wider area. He's right though, in that just because you see it, doesn't mean that it's looking at you or is even remotely interested in you.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I should have my FAA Commercial Drone License next month. Just waiting on the paperwork.

a reply to: JIMC5499

I thought about trying to get into that. That should be pretty interesting. Congrats.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: GrumpyPants

It depends on what they're being used for though. A private drone may have a decent camera that can zoom in, where a commercial drone doesn't want that, and wants to see a wider area. He's right though, in that just because you see it, doesn't mean that it's looking at you or is even remotely interested in you.

Absolutely. Though here they're being used extensively by thieves to see what's worth nicking in people's back yards. Especially dogs, there's been a big uptick in thefts of family pets since the lockdown started. Trafficked and sold on, or used in puppy farms. So there's a bit of suspicion around their use.

a reply to: JIMC5499
But does it do Mach 6?

A drone crashing because it's GPS was malfunctioning does not make a great deal of sense. Even the simple Arduino Ardu-pilot drone software will constantly check GPS against hard magnetic heading,speed,altitude readings and disconnect if it finds a fault. Depending upon how it was told to handle that condition, it will turn around and head back in the direction where it came from to try and regain GPS , or control signal if manual.

a reply to: PhantomTwo

I could easily recognise it as a Mavic 2, it was that close. I'm long haired and was sunbathing face down, probably assumed to be a topless woman. It turned as soon as I flipped it off. Ergo it was being operated by a frustrated, immature fool.

I spent many mornings with a Mavic 2 getting footage that helped alter the outcome of an unpopular multi-million pound project.

I'm on very friendly terms with one of the most talented fast fliers in the UK.

Don't assume I'm ignorant.

a reply to: JIMC5499

License or permission?

a reply to: Kester

License.