Flights suspended at London's Gatwick Airport after reports of drone sightings

Passengers flying via London's Gatwick Airport will face at least another 24 hours of disruption after several drone sightings forced Britain's second-busiest airport to shut its runway, causing delays to thousands of Christmas travellers.

Planes were unable to depart after the drones were spotted, while a number of flights scheduled to land were diverted to other airports, Gatwick said in a statement.

Police said they believed the actions were deliberate and more than 20 units were searching for the drone operators.“Public safety is paramount and we will take all available actions to disrupt this deliberate act”, Sussex police said in a statement. “There are no indications to suggest this is terror-related”.

Gatwick’s chief operating officer Chris Woodroofe could not say when flights would resume and warned that the knock-on effects from the airport closure would last for more than 24 hours. Mr Woodroofe described one of the drones as a heavy industrial drone."It's definitely not a standard, off-the-shelf type drone, I definitely believe it is a deliberate act" he said on BBC radio.

Gatwick apologised on Twitter to affected passengers, adding that safety was its "foremost priority".

An increase in near-collisions by unmanned aircraft and commercial jets has fuelled safety concerns in the aviation industry in recent years. In Britain, the number of near-misses between private drones and aircraft more than tripled between 2015 and 2017, with 92 incidents recorded last year, according to the UK Airprox Board.

Question 1: [2 POINTS].Indicate whether the following statements are TRUE or FALSE and write down which part of the text justifies your answer.

1. Some planes could take off despite the drones.
2. Authorities think drones were flown on purpose.
3. The drones cannot be purchased in commercial stores
4. The number of incidents caused by drones has increased since 2017

Question 2: [2 POINTS] Answer the following questions in your own words according to the text.

1. What problems at Gatwick airport have the drones caused?
2. What decisions were taken after the incident?

Question3: [1,5 POINTS] Find words or phrases in the text that correspond to the words and definitions given.

1. cautch sight (paragraph 2)
2. principal (paragraph 3)
3. symptoms (paragraph 3)
4. restart (paragraph 4)
5. depicted (paragraph 4)

Question 4: [1,5 POINTS] Choose the correct option, a, b, c or d for each question and copy the sentence onto your answer sheet.

1. 

a) Passengers flying via London's Gatwick Airport will have to wait until Christmas Day.

b) Passengers flying via London's Gatwick Airport will have to cope with complications for not less than one day.

c) Passengers flying via London's Gatwick Airport will have delays for more than 24 hours.

d) Passengers flying via London’s Gatwick won’t be able to fly for at least 24 days.

2. 

a) Police said that it could have been a terrorist attack.

b) Police were convinced that these acts have not been performed for a particular reason

c) Police thought that the drones were there for a specific reason

d) Police said that the drone operators had been found

3. 

a) Chris Woodroofe didn’t know when departures would get back to normal

b) Chris Woodroofe said that one of the drones was really small and made of recycled material

c) Chris Woodroofe affirmed that all the flights would take off in a few hours

d) Chris Woodroofe described one of the drones as a common one.

QUESTION 5. [3 POINTS] Write a short essay (about 120 – 150) on the following topic:

What are the advantages and disadvantages of drone technology?

KEY

Question 1

1. False: “Planes were unable to depart after the drones were spotted”
2. True: “Police said they believed the actions were deliberate”
3. True: “Mr Woodroofe described one of the drones as a heavy industrial drone.It's definitely not a standard, off-the-shelf type drone”
4. False: “In Britain, the number of near-misses between private drones and aircraft more than tripled between 2015 and 2017,”

Question 2:

1. They have caused a lot of chaos at the airport and delays for people travelling during the Christmas holidays.
2. They decided to direct some flights to other airports near Gatwick and more than 20 security units are working to solve the problems of security due to the drones.

Question 3 :

1. Spotted
2. Paramount
3. Indications
4. Resume
5. Described

Question 4

1 b) Passengers flying via London's Gatwick Airport will have to cope with complications for not less than one day.

           2 c) Police thought that the drones were there for a specific reason

           3 a) Chris Woodroofe didn’t know when departures would get back to normal