Earlier this week we all watched in stunned amazement as London’s Gatwick Airport was shut down due to rogue drone operators. Hundreds of flights were cancelled and thousand of holiday travelers were inconvenienced.
Flights have now resumed from Gatwick, under extremely tight aerial security, and the incident is now believed to have been a stunt by ‘green’ protesters.
Before the incident, drone pilots in the UK were already reporting on the hostility some in the public have toward their hobby, making this latest development at Gatwick even more distressing.
Within a day, UK politicians were calling for Her Majesty’s government to tighten up the rules and seriously regulate the operation of unmanned aircraft.
Most worrying, however, is that the terrorist group ISIS has jumped into the fray on social media by sharing a photoshopped image of a drone over Manhattan carrying a package with ISIS markings.
Countries like the US have not been particularly eager to regulate drone operation by hobbyists beyond publishing best practices and recommendations on safe operation.
ISIS has a history of small scale attacks such as truck rampages in France and violent street-stabbings in the UK, however this is the first overt threat against an American city.
No doubt intelligence authorities everywhere have been contemplating a response to a myriad of potential ISIS attack scenarios, however the psychological impact of a social media posting like this is aimed directly at terrorizing the average citizen.
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