As technology advances and drones become more common in everyday life, airports must adjust and understand the scope of possible risks and consequences when dealing with UAS and unauthorized UAS. There are several safety risks as well as financial hardships associated with unauthorized, careless and nefarious drone flights in and around airports. Airports need to add drone detection, tracking and risk assessment into their current security stack if they have not already done so.
A drone coming into contact with a fast-moving plane, can damage the body of the plane or the windshield. Today, airports shut down flights when a drone is sighted for precisely these reasons – like the well-publicized Gatwick Airport shutdown in December Christmas 2018. The Gatwick incident was reported to affect 140,000 passengers with 1,000 flights diverted or cancelled and reported cost of GBP$50-$75 million to the airport and airlines.
