Sunday 23 December 2018

Was it a drone? NO just chaos

A drone or a number of drones or no drones at all brought Gatwick airport to a total standstill for nearly two days and ruined more than 100,000 people's Christmas holiday plans. The whole country was in a lynching mood. Whoever was to blame was fast becoming the most hated person in the UK. So when a very ordinary-looking man and woman were arrested at their home in Crawley, on the fringe of the airport, you could almost hear the cries for revenge and justice and, well, lynching. Even Theresa May climbed on the bandwagon and said the culprits could be sent to prison for five years. But then they were released uncharged, and the police subsequently cast doubt on whether there had been any drones flying over the Gatwick runway in the first place. The police and airport authorities had acted on the basis of witnesses who claimed to have spotted the drone or drones. Despite all the CCTV cameras dotted around the airport, there was apparently not a single image of a drone in the air over Gatwick. What a total farce!! It's one thing to be ultra cautious but to shut down the whole airport because someone somewhere may have seen something that looked like a drone hovering is unbelievably bizarre. What fools there are in authority. It was a major major crisis, but all for nothing. If it wasn't so serious, it could almost make you laugh. One thing that has to be mentioned is that certain airlines with licences to fly in and out of Heathrow made huge profits out of it. Passengers with cancelled EasyJet and other flights frantically called up British Airways and other companies to see if they could get flights out to their holiday destinations. A member of my family flying into UK from Spain was quoted 600 Euros for four one-way tickets to Heathrow. By the time he reached the pay stage online, all the 600 Euro seats had gone and he was offered Club Class one-way tickets for four at 1,700 Euros!! Way more than double the cost! Out of desperation he grabbed these extortionately expensive tickets - extortion is the right word - but when they got on board they were informed there was no food for them. At 1,700 Euros, there was NO food. And all because, allegedly, there were suspected but probably non-existent drones flying around Gatwick. Disgraceful.

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